Her War
by Materia-Blade
Summary: Two and a half years ago, Ranma Saotome died. The residents of Nerima moved on, somehow. Meanwhile, A civil war arose in China. And a prisoner made a vow of revenge that will change the world forever. Dark fic. Pure Ranma. Credit to Ryo-Wolf and Ozz.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer**: Don't Own Ranma ½. Yes. JUST Ranma ½. That's all this fic has in it. Can you believe it? Bet ya can't. And here you thought all the possible Pure Ranma ½ fics were written and re-written didn't you!? Hah!

**Credits**: Okay. So sending a special thanks out to Ryo-Wolf for giving me this idea in the first place, and another goes to Ozzallos for helping me pervert it into the fic it's become. ^_^; Heh. Hope ya ain't _too _pissed with how much I screwed with it Ryo!

**Her War  
**

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Prologue**

_Years they kept us there in that cage. A black pit for their whores and their captives. The weak. The prisoners. Those they defeated. I was just one of them. And we rotted in there. All of us did. Those who came before me were lifeless, broken things. Not weak willed. Not the least of them. But those strong wills they had once had, were long since torn and shredded._

_I remember the first night. The fear. The pain of it all. I had been an Amazon! I had been a symbol!_ _And before that night, I had never known fear. Terror. Before that night, I had never cried myself to sleep, wishing life was just a dream._

_Was it days? Or was it decades that I was held in that cage? Forced to the whim of our 'masters?' Beaten until obedience was the only thing I remembered? How long must it have been? _

_I do not know. And I do not care._

_The day She was thrown into my cell, naked and cold just as I had been so long ago... was the day I was born again._

* * *

Akane Tendo was terrified. How could this be? How could this possibly be!? Well… obviously she _knew how!_ But it just… _couldn't_ be!

Oh god. What would she do? What should she say?! Terror crept up her spine. Mousse… wasn't the type of person to leave her over something like this was he?

Wait… it… could be wrong!

Right. She'd have to try again! To make sure. Be certain...

Ten minutes later and another three tests only confirmed what the first test had stated.

She was pregnant.

Oh god.

…

If it was a boy she could have him marry little Ranma-chan to join the schools!

… AGH! She was turning into her father!

Her mind jumping from place to place, so fast that she could barely form a coherent thought was the only thing that kept her from leaning against the wall, sliding down it, and bawling.

Kasumi! Kasumi would know what to do!

Standing, she dashed towards the door, grabbing her shoes as she went, until she suddenly ran into something hard, bouncing off, and falling straight to the floor.

"Oww…." She moaned. "He watch where you're—! Mousse!" She exclaimed terrified.

"Are you alright, Akane?" He asked, worriedly, as he knelt down beside her. His white robe long traded for more traditional Japanese clothing, a green shirt and black pants, making him look vaguely similar to Ranma if she really thought about it, only accentuated his lack of glasses.

His arms went around her neck and beneath her knees to lift her easily, and Akane almost swooned. How the hell had Shampoo _ever_ disliked this man? It made no sense to her.

But she couldn't hold back the tears. "I… I'm fine! You idiot!" She cursed. "D-Don't do that! You have to say wh-when you're coming in!"

She was openly bawling. God dammit! Why? Why couldn't she ever stop crying these days!?

Admittedly this time she had a pretty good reason to be crying. She was pregnant. Oh god, she was pregnant. She was going to have a baby! B-A-B-Y, baby! And Mousse didn't know. He didn't know!

What if he didn't want it? What if he left her!?

God, how could she not cry!?

She almost slammed her face into his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his neck as he held her.

"A-Akane? What…? What's wrong?" He asked. "I… I know that couldn't have hurt you that much. What is it?"

His voice was soft. Caring. What would it be like when he knew? When she told him that she would have his baby. Wait… would he want an abortion? No! Surely not! He was an Amazon! Had been…. They didn't even _have_ abortions out there in the middle of China!

Wait… did this mean he would have to marry her?

"I... I… I… It's… I…. d-do you love me!?" The girl bawled.

Mousse smiled. "Of course. What's wrong, Akane-chan?" He asked.

Mousse had long since grown accustomed to the girl's tears. She cried almost every day, and it hadn't taken Mousse long to make a connection between Akane and her tearful father. It was strange. After… after Ranma's death, Akane had… changed. _Drastically._ It gave strange insights into Soun Tendo's history as well.

She had become a tearful creature of pent emotions. All that emotion that the girl had once contained, always unleashed with her anger upon the object of her affection had disappeared, leaving behind a girl who could barely think without crying. Ranma had been her life. Ranma had been her love. Ranma had been her everything.

She didn't cry much anymore, though Ranma's… death… had left a strong impact on her. She never grew angry anymore. Instead her mind seemed to jump from thing to thing at rapid fire spurts that left the girl almost completely different from the Akane of old.

But… it was _this_ Akane that he'd fallen in love with.

Now she was becoming happier and happier by the day. And Mousse was certain that it was _him_ that had caused that. _Him_. _He_ had made her happy. Made her happy enough to forget her broken heart.

Honestly, Mousse didn't think any of the fiancée's had loved Ranma like Akane had. Shampoo hadn't… _broken… _like Akane had. Nor had Ukyo. They were both alright. Akane though…? Mousse remembered those days. A glance at the youngest Tendo's face in the months after Ranma died would have been enough to bring anyone to depression.

They searched the remains of Mount Horaisan. Days. Days became weeks. Weeks became _months_ of nothing but sifting through dirt. For a body. For _something._ The only thing they had found was one of Ranma's bracers.

Nothing could have survived that mountain collapsing.

And Akane had just… turned off. She'd become so… _different_ that even Kuno had stopped pursuing her. For a short time Mousse remembered Akane taking solace in Ryoga. But that was to be expected. Ryoga had been a good friend. They'd tried to date even but… it just hadn't worked out. Ryoga had begun to resent the love Akane still _clearly_ held for Ranma.

But… now had been long enough for her to forget. And _he_ was her boyfriend.

"Akane…? What's got you so shaken up!?" He demanded.

"I… uhm… I… I am—! Er… I need to go! I need to go talk to… to my sister, okay? I'll… I'll be back in a little while! Oka—?"

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Both of their ears perked up. That was unusual. There weren't many people who visited the Tendo Dojo and knocked. Most people simply walked in. But sure enough, someone was knocking on the gate out in the front yard.

"I'll… I'll get it." Akane said worriedly, squirming her way, out of Mousse's cradling of her, and dashing off to the gate out front.

Mousse quirked an eyebrow at the girl, barely caring about who was at the door. Something was wrong. But what could—!?

At that moment, his eyes drifted across the pregnancy test wrappers littering the bed.

"Oh." Was all he could manage to say, so shocked was his mind.

_

* * *

_

Ryoga stared at the clock, as he waited patiently for his intended date. Sweat trailed down his brow as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise in abject horror at the thought of the fact that he was about to actually attempt to date.

Not that he wasn't already deeply in love with the girl, but they had almost never actually _dated. _Add to that, this girl's version of a date was quite… skewered. He'd only recently discovered that all their endless battles and fights had actually _been_ dates.

Heh. If only Ranma had known back then, he probably could have gotten rid of her. It was only now that Ryoga realized that Ranma had never wanted the girl.

He sighed, as his mind went again to the bane of his existence. And yet… not… For, if not for Ranma, then who could he blame for the gorgeous woman he was about to enjoy the evening with?

He took his eyes away from the clock warily. It was time… One door. Another. Another. Ah! There's the exit!

After he had made it outside of the building, a commendable accomplishment that he was more than proud of considering he'd only opened three doors and there were at _least forty_ in the establishment, he jumped.

The battle was on in an instant, as his fiancée threw her weapon at him in heated passion. Sweat poured off her nubile body, the heat of midsummer bearing heavily down on the beautiful girl, and he couldn't help but adore the arc in her incredible kick as she followed her weapon down to where it had only barely missed him.

Dodging once, twice, now she was out of weapons; she only carried the two, and it would take a moment for the girl to retrieve them, he took his chance. Snatching twenty seven bandannas from his forehead, he launched them with dizzying accuracy at the girl, hot fury dicing his vision as it always did in the heat of battle.

Admittedly less so against this particular opponent.

The girl's grace was unbelievable as she bounded _off_ his spinning headbands almost as fast as he could see. She'd had been training too, and her skill had not slackened in the slightest.

She… was almost as good as Ranma-chan now. As fast surely, with a grace that even the red-head had not been able to match.

He could admit that now, he decided. Ranma's girl form was truly the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid his eyes on. Save for the beauty in front of him. _His_ _fiancée. _Still, he couldn't help but compare himself. He was _better_ then Ranma had once been, now. He was _sure _of it!

'_Can you make a mountain topple as if it were a sand castle, Ryoga? You'll never match him, and you know it.' _His mind told him, but he shoved the thoughts away.

He… had never tried to decimate a mountain. His ki… his strongest attack, The Leopard's Rush, was not as powerful as the Lion's Roar Bullet of old. The perfect one at least. But it was strong. Far stronger then Ranma's attack had been… but could it hold a candle to the unbelievable ingenuity that was the other black haired youth?

Well… that didn't matter anymore. To his regret.

Before he could blink the girl was upon him. He parried the sideways kick that the girl had somehow made flash from his lower right side, backing him up to the edge of the building upon which he stood. He leapt back and away from her returning arc, swinging around on… what the?

"Surprising, no?" She said, daintily even as her foot slammed into his face, the girl pivoting on the grounded ball end of a _third_ Bonbori that she had somehow pulled from nowhere.

He flew over the edge of the building but easily caught himself, hardly feeling the kick. If one thing had not changed it was his Hibiki strength and toughness. He'd always been Ranma's better in that regard. Too bad that never seemed to count for enough to defeat the pigtailed…

Dammit! He was in a fight! Err… date! What the hell was he thinking!

His umbrella was in his hands before he even realized it, and he stabbed it into the side of the building without a second thought. Bounding back up to the top of the building, regretfully leaving the bamboo-made weapon behind, he arced over his fiancée with ease.

Grinning at her irritated look, he launched a few more boomerang like bandanas at his target which she batted away as soon as he landed.

"You slack off!" The girl exclaimed heatedly. "No fun for you tonight!"

More than enough to make the poor lost boy crinkle in despair. "What!? You learned a new trick, that doesn't mean I slacked off! I'm still more than standing!" He shouted in protest.

"Was match on log in village, you already lost!" The girl replied, her voice edged with the same anger and fire he'd grown to love about her.

His face dropped into a smile and he threw another bandana. Just one. But this one was a bit different.

The bandana flew at speeds Ranma couldn't have even comprehended back then, blasting right by the girl before she could even blink. "I… think it's _you _who has been slacking, Airen." He stated, with a somewhat lusty grin, as the girl's shirt fell open.

The girl blinked, for a moment, not realizing what he had done. Then she noticed her breasts, covered by only a bra standing out in the open sunlight, and the shredded remains of her shirt lying on the floor.

Xian Pu had the decency to blush furiously. "That… not fair! You cheat!" He gave her a half lidded stare, and the girl's anger wilted under his stare. "So… Xian Pu's Airen, stronger than she… not bad thing. But, Xian… er… _I _need more training! Okay!?"

Ryoga gave a proud grin at the girl's use of pronouns, and decided it would not be amiss to reward her by making an idiot out of himself, and attempted to agree lightheartedly in her own native Mandarin.

When the girl burst out laughing, he assumed he'd said something wrong.

"Baka-Airen." She replied, when her fit of laughter finally subsided. The girl approached him happily, grinning as she let her arms slip over his shoulders, while his casually drifted his own behind her back. "At least… uh… what word… _you_ try." The girl finished, finally recalling the proper word to use, after a heavy bit of straining to reach it.

Ryoga grinned. "So… no fun for me tonight, hmm?" He muttered, chancing a sly glance down the exposed portion of her cleavage. "Seems kind of like it should be me telling you that."

The girl blushed harder. It had been some time since Ryoga had defeated her so soundly, but she did not regret bringing him to do so. She knew Ryoga was far beyond her… just… just as Ranma had been.

She shook herself. It did not do to think on old loves, long gone. She had done well, managing to keep him out of her mind for almost three weeks… days like this… with the sunset reminding her of days spent chasing… what she now admitted would probably have been an uncatchable prey…

They were good times… regardless of who would have won his heart, in the end.

Either way… _these_ were _better_ times. It would do no good to let the bitter memory of Ranma taint it.

Still… thoughts of how life could have been by now. With Ranma, the man who fought _Herb,_ _Prince of the Musk_ to a standstill and took him down with him. The thought still made her shiver in wonder. But… she had begun to move on now. Ranma… was gone. And she _had_ to forget. Or she would never be able to get over him.

Not that Ryoga was a bad catch in _any_ way. The man would walk through fire for her. And honestly, he could probably trash the Musk Prince these days. Were he under the proper motivation anyway. Even Ranma would probably be humbled by him.

Probably…

Suddenly a rapping came from the downstairs front door.

"Odd. We aren't open for hours. Who is here, Xian Pu wonder?" The girl intoned. The rapping grew louder.

Then the sound of the door being slid open could be heard below. Their eyes narrowed.

* * *

Nabiki Tendo was tired. All day she'd been working rigorously on her homework, and she'd found that it still wasn't enough to finish, or even really make a dent in all that she had to do.

Collecting money at college was _far_ more difficult than it had been in high school. The students were all slicker. Smarter.

Granted, she was smarter still, but these students had made it into Tokyo U. They weren't dumb. And even a little brains was enough to be capable of avoiding her. Unlike Furinkan where she had been a _queen_, her word, law, here she was merely a bishop. Tuition collectors were far more fierce then she.

But she would grow… oh, she would grow. She had plans. Big plans already in the making. Even after college was over, this was where she was crafting her battleground. She would be the queen once again. Ohh yes… The time was coming!

But first she had to finish this damn homework! Gah! No one ever told her how _hard_ college could be!

Fortunately, finances were not a worry for her any longer. Without Daddy asking to borrow money from her for repairs for the house every other day, or Kasumi for a few bucks for tonight's dinner, she had much less to worry about. Tuition, housing? They were a piece of cake. If only she weren't forced to reside in these contemptible small rooms! Forced together with a girl who was even more strange then even Ryoga!

Probably not Kuno. Or the Golden Pair. But definitely more strange than Ryoga.

"You look like crap, Nabiki." Rita, her roommate, laughed down at her. Nabiki rolled over on her bed and growled, to which the girl only laughed.

Sighing she glanced over at the clock mounted on her wall. Two thirty. Right. Agunata was due to meet her to pay his dues at three thirty. Plenty of time for a few hours shut-eye.

…

Wait…

…

Damn!

"Shut up." Nabiki cursed, as she rolled herself up, her eyes facing into the sunlight of mid-afternoon filtering in through the window. "I have a test this Friday. And I'm dying inside." She joked idly.

"Want a soda?" The girl asked chirpishly, her blonde hair, and unbearably foreign accent gnawing as Nabiki's nerves. "It usually helped me when I was 'dying inside.'" She laughed.

"Sure." Nabiki replied.

Her roommate was almost four years older than her, and really only here because her unbelievably rich father didn't want her around. Or so she insinuated at least.

Nabiki jumped slightly as a swift and harsh knocking came bearing down on the hard-wooden door that was her and her roommate's entrance.

Languorously, Nabiki rose. She hated answering the door when she'd just been napping. But she knew Agunata was terrified of visitors. She almost laughed at the girl, now lying on her own bed, covered by her blankets, and quivering. It would be funny if it weren't so damn _common._ Weird girl.

Nabiki opened the door to find three soldiers, all clearly members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Military of some sort anyway. All of them were decorated with medals, but one, the shortest, stood out far beyond the other two.

"Hello, Ma'am. Are you Nabiki Tendo?" He asked lightly.

"Is Nabiki-chan under arrest?" Her roommate piped from her place hidden in her covers.

Nabiki sighed.

* * *

Genma Saotome was an old man. When his son had died, he had been almost certain the boy had gone and taken his soul right along with him. Other things of course had led to his elderly appearance comparatively to only two and a half years ago, but that, he was certain, was the main contributing factor.

Even so, he was no deadbeat old man. He felt his age, but he didn't let it get him down like Soun had when he'd lost his wife all those years ago. No. He learned from his friend's mistake, and knew that dwelling on the past would not help him.

Instead he was preparing. Preparing once again. He was a bit older. Looking, but like Happosai, it had not hurt him. He was now a bit faster. A bit stronger. And he knew… he _knew_… he could do it again. His little daughter, named Ranma after her older brother, despite the improper gender of the name, would be the greatest martial artist ever. Passing Ranma by endless miles.

But this time, there was a difference. He wouldn't be leaving home.

He'd learned the error of that, and found that within the short time Ranma had remained within Nerima, his skill had surely tripled. Did it not follow that training little Ranma here would make her even stronger?

Perhaps it was the array of martial artists their journey had attracted that had caused Ranma's later unbelievable advance, but even so, many of those same people remained here. Ryoga and Xian Pu were more than willing to care for, and train their former friend's protégé. And were not Akane and Mousse stronger than they had ever been?

Hmm. Those two really should have a child. A son, he hoped. Otherwise, another trip to Jusenkyo might be needed. The schools would be joined yet!

Through it all, Genma found that, despite all the little regrets he had, he had one major one that outstripped them all. He'd never told his Son just how proud of him he was. Not _really._ And now he regretted that more than anything.

He wouldn't fail with his daughter. If she died before him, or if she buried him fifty years from now, she would _know_ that he loved her. No matter what the girl did with her life.

He hoped maybe, that would make up for his failure.

"Husband? Dinner is ready! And Ranma needs changed… Again! It's your turn this time!" Came Nodoka's call.

Genma growled, and stood from his meditative state, deep within the Dojo. It was almost a year and a half old now. Ranma's shrine lay at the far end, directly in front of where he now stood. Odd that he would seek his dead son for advice now.

But he felt trying again, here, was right.

He slowly walked into the house, through the warmth of the waning afternoon sun, and entered the kitchen through the nifty back door. When they'd made the dojo, they'd been forced to knock out the backroom in order to have room for it. Genma's job teaching students at the Tendo's had paid for it and now both were blessed with schools that would be continued.

Soun had found his drive after Ranma had died. Found it tenfold. Still, he was years behind Genma, and even Ranma's friends. The man was a grade A martial artist but… he was no Ranma when it came to sparring. Genma _longed_ for another match with his son, and could hardly wait till his daughter was proficient enough in the art to match him.

She was already showing the signs. That deft eye. The little knack for punching and kicking her mother when she fed her a food she didn't like.

It was cute really. But the memories of when Ranma was young stung like hornets. But he had plenty of distractions to keep those at bay.

"Wife! I clearly remember changing her not three hours ago! It's _your_ turn!" He groused in his demanding, manly voice that told her he would _not_ take no for an answer!

The woman actually grinned at him. And then batted her eyes! Batted her _eyes!_ The nerve! Using her feminine wiles to lure him into what he had already resigned himself too! How—! How utterly _Her_ of her!

Moments passed with the woman standing in front of a stove, steaming leaking up and around her prim body, covered by an apron, and oddly, without her usual kimono beneath, choosing instead a more light pair of slacks and a long sleeved shirt. She stared at him. Smiling, and batting her eyes in a way that usually only worked once per day to get him to do something for her.

Honestly, if she used it more often, she'd probably get her way more-so then she already did. It was her weapon to counter his demanding tone.

Clearly, hers was the stronger.

"Fine." He murmured, strolling away. The woman laughed and turned back to the stove.

Suddenly a knock came from the hard wooden front door, loud and firm echoing into the back of the house.

"I'll—!" Genma began!

"I'll get it!" His wife called merrily, both interrupting and taking his chance to get out of the diaper changing. Ugh… so close!

Genma walked into the baby room and found his daughter bawling. Oh. He'd hadn't even noticed before he'd opened that door. Hmm… perhaps that was a rather bad habit? Tuning out his daughter's crying surely wasn't a very good thing…

Oh well!

Genma had long since invented, perfected, and mastered a great and most powerful technique. Valued by mother's, baby sitters, and, curiously, not a few Zen masters from all across the world, truly the Anything Goes Martial Arts Super Secret Diaper Changing Technique was a thing of wonder.

In seconds the girl was happily creating towers from blocks and bashing them over again. She would change the world someday. Surely, she would.

"Husband… Come to the front room. Now." Came Nodoka's demand. Her voice was urgent. Her tone slick with worry.

A sweat drop trailed down his brow, and a jump crept into his step as he circled the hallways until he reached the front room. Worry shackled him as he saw no less than three, extremely official-looking, military dressed men standing in his foyer.

He'd paid his debts! Served plenty of jail time for his petty thievery and what not once they finally caught up to him. What could it possibly be _now!?_

"Who are you?" He demanded lowly. "And what do you want here?"

Genma had a rather low opinion of officials. He'd never encountered the military before, but he doubted they would be much different from local police. Irritating, arrogant, and weak. And not necessarily in that order. They thought their _guns_ were enough to protect a country, when a true martial artist could _destroy_ them with a particularly strong _flick. Fools. _

"Genma and Nodoka Saotome, I presume?" The shortest of the three men asked, dressed in a black and off-black sort of suit that Genma thought he recognized from his days traveling with the master across the sea over ships. Thought it looked sleek and updated from then.

Decorated with medals of every type, all three of them, the shorter one held an air of authority that easily regulated the other two to little more than 'precautionary backup.' Honestly, Genma was somewhat surprised they were even here. But then, perhaps the military wasn't so arrogant. If it came to a fight, he would be no more hard pressed by them, but at least they _knew_ power.

"Yes…" Genma drawled. "What do you want. I've paid my debts to society, but I don't want any trouble. Why are you here?" He demanded, the authority in his voice when talking to his wife earlier coming in at a mere pittance compared to his anger now.

The man had the decency to flinch a bit. But only a bit.

'_Brave at least.' _Genma thought, idly.

"Genma and Nodoka Saotome, I am Setsoki Kyoke, Chief Foreign Affairs Aide to the Emperor. I'm here today to acquire you as well as a specific few other individuals. Genma. Your country needs you." The man spoke eloquently, as if the speech hadn't even been rehearsed, the words just rolling off his tongue naturally.

Genma blinked. Twice.

"Am I being drafted?" He ventured.

Setsoki's eyebrow twitched, and he decided to ignore the question. "I need the both of you to come with me immediately. The emperor has need of you."

"Our country… needs us? What for?" Genma barked. Nodoka's elbow came faster than his remark, but he didn't regret it.

Jumping in, far more politely than Genma had started, Nodoka assumed her customary role of Traditional Wife. But even she was not free of skepticism. "Of course. We are citizen's of Japan. We will gladly help in any way the Emperor wishes. But… If I may ask… why—?"

Setsoki cut Nodoka off sharply. "We were hoping you would be able to tell us. Regardless, you must come. You are to be ambassadors to the estate now known as New China."

"_China!?" _Genma burst, hatefully. "Are you out of your mind? I have a daughter! And you ask me to bring my wife into the middle of a civil war!?"

Setsoki gave a small smile. "It should please you to note that the war in China is finally over. A new monarch has taken the throne."

"Really? That is good news." Nodoka interrupted before Genma had the chance to speak.

"Indeed, Ma'am." The man replied, his hand tracing the tip of his military cap. "And it is why we need you to come with us. In order to remain at peace with New China. I assure you, you and yours will come to no harm."

Genma eyed the two other soldiers suspiciously. They had remained silent behind Setsoki, stone walls this entire time. They were well disciplined at least. Given six or seven years they could probably be in that Kuno fool's class, if they worked for it.

His eyes trailed back to Setsoki. The man was irritated for sure. And tired. It seemed he had been doing this all day.

'_A few others? Like who?'_ Genma wondered idly. Judging the man, he found that there was quite a bit of honesty in his words. Anger at not knowing the reason for which he was pulling these people out of their lives was evident.

That was almost the only thing letting Genma sympathize with the man.

"And I assume, you don't know _why_ we are needed?" Nodoka asked, voicing Genma's own musings.

"I… am afraid the emperor did not see fit to tell me, Ma'am." He stated, in an almost disappointed sort of way. "My orders are to see that you and your Husband are brought to the Office of Foreign Affairs by tomorrow evening. By any means necessary."

The words weren't meant as a threat, and Genma and Nodoka were both more than powerful enough to take these men's weapons before any of them blinked. Curiously, it seemed that they _knew_ this.

A moment of silence passed.

"You can guarantee that there will be no harm done to my daughter? Or my wife?" Genma asked, hardly.

"Th-There is always _some_ risk. But you will not be in any danger. The fighting is over. Many spies have confirmed it. The _war_ _is_ over…" The man said, in an overly certain manner.

Genma still seemed skeptical.

"…and did I mention this will pay in seven figures?"

"When do we leave?" Genma grinned.

**End Prologue**

**Author's Notes: ** Yo all! Okay. Despite the light, somewhat comical appearance of this fic at a glance at the prologue, it's gonna be _**Dark**_. Almost going to put it in the Mature section, but I won't because I'll avoid explicit descriptions. But bad things are assumed.

_Read at your own discretion. _

It's Ranma-chan. By now, anyone reading my Ranma fics should know that though. And all of this is mostly just setup. Next chapter we'll dive into the darkness. Bring a flashlight.

But the main great thing about it is that it is a PURE RANMA FIC! That's right! No crossovers! No fusions! No cameo's! Nothing! This fic is the first pure Ranma fic _you've _read in ages I bet. Eh? Heh heh.

Not sure if that'll attract people but what the hey.

Throw me a review if you'd like! It's been a while since I've stumbled back into the Ranma Section. My muse for this fic is on fire, same as Rapture and Mark in the Lace, and I'm writing like crazy! Got some new Secret Stolen Smiles. Then Rapture. More of this. And expect Mark to be continued (and completed!) Within the next four months!

So expect alotta new chapters to come out for everything over the Christmas break!

**Please Review!  
**

**Till Next!**

**MB**


	2. Begin a Tale

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I just use them for my amusement. And yours, I hope.

**Her War**

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter One  
Begin A Tale**

_She was a tiny girl. Not the type of person anyone would have suspected of changing… well, everything. She seemed mere a twig, snapped in so many places that She was barely recognizable as a person, but pieces of Her body all still clung together by the bark. _

_Somehow She was alive… somehow._

_Never had I seen such malice inflicted. Not even here. Someone had –hated-_ _this girl. It wasn't until later that I realized She had antagonized Her tormenters to get to this point. _

_She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful girl I could remember seeing, save for perhaps my daughter. Or at least She clearly had been. But now though? She was… scarred. In so much pain, She couldn't scream. So defiant of her captors she made the rest of us seem as mice._

_Not an ounce of cowardice resided in those bones though. Her physique may have been small but she harbored the heart of a lion. _

* * *

Ukyo Kuonji stared out across the various members of Nerima's martial artists. Gathered once again as they hadn't been gathered in years. It was strange. There was no longer a unifying factor among them however. Small talk abounded as they all sat in a strange, but admittedly quite comfortable waiting room in the middle of Tokyo. A half hour drive to get here, after the impromptu summons from the 'Emperor's Chief Advisor on Foreign Affairs,' in a luxurious limousine had her more than ready to find out what this was all about.

Upon entering the building, sporting more than forty stories at the least, and an elevator ride that took so long she wished she'd simply jumped to the top, she'd been greeted by more men and women in suits then she'd ever seen in her life.

Some people stared at her in a surprised, nosy sort of way, that clearly stated "what the hell are you doing here?" but Ukyo was more than used to that. Having lived as a boy for the past eight or nine years of her life, she was no stranger to odd looks.

She gave a depressed sigh as she thought about it. It had been almost a year since Tsubasa had given up on her, thankfully not long after Ranma's untimely demise. That had always been a good thing… but only a year since Konatsu had died.

And now she was lonely.

Ukyo would never admit it, but she was so lonely she almost wished the disguise master would drop by and impersonate her grill. Just once… for old times' sake.

Why couldn't she find anyone? What was it about her that made people shrink away? Just because she was a little different? Because she wasn't like every other girl? Was she really so repulsive?

She thought she might be sometimes. She had hundreds of regulars in her shop and more than enough chances to hear them speak about her. Many had thought it was only a matter of time before she and the not-quite-Kunoichi tied the knot. Perhaps it would have been, looking back. She'd taken the ninja for granted, forgetting her grief for Ranma only after he had died.

A year after Ranma's death she and Konatsu had become friends of the closest degree, but even so she'd never thought about… well… _liking_ him. At the time, at least.

The whole thing was extremely strange. She was the boy! He was the girl! It would have been all wrong! She wanted a _man_! Not some weird cross-dressing ninja! And making love with him? God! It would be horrible! Eeugh!

…

At least… those were the things she told herself when she began regretting not using the time she'd been given. All that time spent lamenting stupid Ranma… she'd missed what she might've had right in front of her.

She sighed again and turned her eyes towards Akane, and found herself grinning at the sight. The girl stood together with Mousse. She looked worried and apprehensive. He looked as if a car were barreling down on him and he was frozen in the glare of the headlights.

What in the world could cause his face to look so unbelievably surprised!? Either way it gave her a laugh, and was enough to bring her out of her brooding.

"H-Hello Kuonji-san." Akane greeted, her customary stutter that had developed after Ranma's death punctuated by a large bit more worry than usual.

"Hey sugar." Ukyo replied with a slight hint of curiosity, which Akane picked up on almost instantly. Mousse seemed clueless as ever. And almost as if he weren't here. "So, what's up with you two?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all! And you!?" Akane jumped on her words with all the force of her own fists, now strong enough to overpower anything save for the girl's own cooking.

Of course, this only served to make Ukyo more curious as to what the girl was hiding. Mousse's face sure did look funny. But, being a friend and all that, Akane clearly didn't want her to take it any further, so she dropped the idea of hinting at something out of the ordinary, in favor of a more mundane topic.

"So, any idea why we're here, Akane-chan?" She asked sweetly. Idly she reached behind her back to secure her battle spatula and make sure it was properly adjusted for attack. Things like that tended to happen, and it was always good to be prepared. One of her stipulations for attending this little… _whatever_ it was, had been that she was allowed to have her giant weapon.

Ukyo believed the only reason they allowed it was because none of them realized that it actually _was_ a weapon. Had they, she doubted Setyoki or Setki or whatever his name was, would have been so lenient. Though she saw that Mousse definitely carried at the very least his ball and chain.

Not that she could actually see it of course, but if one was a martial artist for long enough, one learned to know when others were armed. Especially a weapons Master.

"Hello, everyone." Came the distinct, but abnormally informal voice of the man who had sought her out and asked for her attendance at this little reunion. Though, at the time, she had not known any other members of Nerima's martial artists would be attending. She'd forgotten the man's name and for the life of her, could not remember it.

"What's this all about?" Ryoga demanded heatedly. "Haven't you kept us waiting long enough? We've been here for almost four hours!"

Nabiki, sitting on one of the sofas in the far corner of the room, who had been looking out one of the immaculate windows across the Tokyo skyline, turned towards the short man and firmly nodded her agreement.

Ukyo blinked. She'd only been here for a half hour at the most. But then, she had been one of the last to arrive, followed only by Genma and Nodoka.

"We apologize for the wait, and thank you for your patience. It took time to gather everyone that the new Emperor has asked to see. You are a… difficult group to find." He said with a small chuckle.

No one joined him in the humor. Looking around Ukyo could tell that many odd feeling were circling the room. The emperor was paying them… and large quantities of money as well for this. Genma and Nodoka seemed apprehensive, little Ranma-chan resting on Genma's knee, giggling as if all life were a large play toy for her.

Mousse and Akane seemed distracted. Their minds were clearly elsewhere. Kasumi, Tofu, Soun, and Nabiki all appeared to be at least a bit irritated. Kasumi most of all. Save for perhaps Akane, Ranma's death had affected Kasumi most of all. Kasumi had become… cynical. Ukyo had her suspicions as to why and how the change had occurred. She had always wondered how Nabiki and Kasumi had been sisters with the personalities so unbelievably different. Ranma's death exposed Kasumi's true side. A bitter woman arose from the empty feeling Ranma's ashes had left in everyone. Slowly, Kasumi had lost her motherly attitude.

Oddly enough, it was that same quality, her 'fallen-from-grace' sort of perspective, that had allowed Dr. Tofu to get around his infatuation, and _finally_ ask her to date him.

And later, marry him. Their wedding had been around the same time as Konatsu's death…

'_No Ucc-chan. Don't think about Konatsu. You've got more important things to be doing!' _Ukyo told herself firmly. And she was right. This was no time to be daydreaming about the past.

"Well, let's get right to the point. For those of you who may have forgotten, I am Setsoki Kyoke, the emperor's Chief Advisor of Foreign Affairs. Emperor Hirohito has briefed me on the details of this assignment, and is sorry that he will not be able to attend personally." He paused for a moment as if to make sure he had their attention.

He did.

The martial artists of Nerima had become considerably more calm in the years since Ranma's demise. Satisfied, the man continued on in his same all business attitude as he took a seat in one of the many plush chairs. "The emperor has asked you all to be ambassadors to the newly formed entity known as the Federated City States of New China." The Setsoki finished glibly.

The audience blinked for a second. Ukyo had not known this. Only that the emperor sought her assistance. She was a citizen. She would gladly come to the aid of the emperor. The pay helped as well. Once the small man had convinced her that he was not joking around, and that this was a tried and true summons from Emperor Hirohito himself, she had been more than willing.

It was clear that some had already known. Genma and his wife, Soun, and Nabiki showed the least surprise at this new information.

But others…

"What!?" Ryoga exclaimed heatedly. "New China!?"

"The Federated City States of New China." Setsoki returned ready for the correction. Ukyo noticed Ryoga grate his teeth a bit. He didn't seem to like the man much. Setsoki seemed equally annoyed.

"Isn't there a war going on in China?"Ukyo asked pointedly.

The man gave a small smile. "Good question miss… Kuonji was it? Yes. The war in China has finally ended. China Is now under the control of a new ruler. Brought to rule by the people unanimously, she was crowned four weeks ago as the Empress of All China."

A moment of silence passed while Ukyo and the others thought over Setsoki's words. China had an _Empress?_ _China?_ Weren't they generally more sexist than even the worst of Japanese traditionalists?

Ukyo held back a small laugh at the utter incredulity staining Nodoka's face. Genma himself looked like he barely cared. He was more impatient than anything, but most of his attention was on his small daughter held gingerly in his arms.

"What does this have to do with _us_, exactly?" Nabiki quipped, clearly just as, if not more impatient then the elder Saotome.

"Exactly. Of that we are not certain. We had _hoped_ you all would be able to tell us. You see, less than two weeks ago, the newly crowned empress arranged a meeting with emperor Hirohito, in order to discuss the terms of an alliance. However, when the issue of Ambassadors to trade information between the two countries came up, none would satisfy her. She demanded a specific ten people. You ten." He finished with a questioning glance across the entirety of the room, searching each of their eyes for the answers to the questions he now harbored.

Ukyo didn't have any thoughts right off. Be the ambassadors between China and Japan? Get paid, nicely for serving her country? Low risk for danger? Sounded like a three way win for her. And she'd never had a lack of customers when traveling before. Her portable cooker, while not quite as delightful as grilling from home, was just as good a profit maker as her restaurant.

Curiosity began to develop in her as she began to think of _anyone _she knew who had even _been to_ China. Stretching her mind, the only people she thought of were the Amazon's, of course. Ryoga had gone there when he was younger obviously. But other than that she… wait…

A thought struck her.

"Wait… Emp_ress_?" She asked, emphasizing the feminine suffix of the title firmly.

"I was just as surprised as you," Setsoki replied tartly. "Yes. Empress is correct. The new ruler China _is_ a woman. The first female ruler of china since ancient Wu Hou fourteen hundred years ago."

Ukyo gave a sigh, and found that sigh accompanied by several others. It had been an entertaining thought. That of Ranma becoming a ruler of China. But empress? Hah! He'd die first!

…

That thought was a bit more depressing when it finished its trek across her mind.

Gloomy, she gave a stare at him. She tried to speak but Xian Pu beat her to the punch. "Xian Pu is from China! Possibly the new ruler of China is an Amazon?"

Ukyo glowered. Ranma's death or not, she had never become friendly with the Amazon. She had a strange fondness for Ryoga, after all their schemes to separate Ranma and Akane throughout those years, but Xian Pu…? Well. Xian Pu was an idiot. Still and always. They would _never_ get along.

"Just because she's from China doesn't mean she even _knows you_!" Ukyo boomed challengingly. "She could just as easily be someone else from China that we know!"

Xian Pu growled but didn't say anything. Ukyo almost blinked. Perhaps the girl had matured a bit. After a moment of silence, Ukyo began to almost feel bad about the jibe.

"I… am sure U-Ukyo, knows many people from China, Yes? Ukyo knows the Jusenkyo guide maybe?" The girl struggled to use the words correctly but she succeeded miraculously. Her stuttered sarcasm stung Ukyo. Yes. She definitely would never get along with her.

"Both of you are wrong. Our spies in China have told us that this woman is of Japanese descent. She has professed it openly, as a reason to avoid taking the throne. She seemed… very reluctant to take it in the first place. She was described as… humble in appearance but above all… _dangerous._" He stated, in an alarmingly low tone.

"Joy," Nabiki sighed sarcastically. Her sarcasm was a sign, Ukyo noted. It had taken years for her to actually analyze one of Nabiki's true character traits, but she'd slowly discovered that her sarcastic quips usually meant that she _knew_ something no one else did.

It gnawed at her; what could the middle Tendo's mind have gleaned already that her own could not find?

"So what do we know about this empress? A name maybe?" Nabiki asked tartly, as it throwing a weapon at the sharp-eyed advisor.

Setsoki waved it off, clearly accustomed to barbs regarding his mental prowess. "She is called Fire. That is the only name any would give. It seems to be the only name she has used since she became the leader of the resistance several months ago. Before that, no one had heard of her… it seems she became somewhat of a legend during the earlier parts of the war. And later, a living hero. I don't presume to know what is true and what is not, but our informants tell us that she is considered the savior of China. Why? What from? Questions we would like the answers to. She refused to speak on the events of her past without ambassadors. You ten."

"You don't even know her _name?"_ Kasumi jibed. "Great spies you have there…"

Setsoki's eyes narrowed at that.

"Hundreds of spies were sent to China to try to find out what in God's name was happening over there. Thousands. Do you _know_ how many died? How many _died_ for just this? I don't think you realize just how dangerous the war really was, do you? We have been safe here, but in the mainland for the past two years individual villages have been erased from maps by the day. People killed in the thousands in moments. Then, all of a sudden, our spies, those still alive at least report en masse that a new empress has risen to power." Setsoki spoke eloquently with a voice used to speeches. His eyes were hard and his tone harder. Kasumi didn't bat an eyelash at it, showcasing her own sternness, but Ukyo admitted to feeling a little guilt. Perhaps she should have cared a bit more about the mainland.

"Days later," Setsoki continued, "The emperor received a message requesting an immediate alliance and the presence of ten specific ambassadors. You ten. Now we have discovered everything we can about this 'Empress Ruby,' but anyone sent to watch her has not returned. Not one."

Kasumi was not finished. Sing-songing her voice she attacked with sarcasm to a degree even above Nabiki, "And you expect _us_ to go to her? You offer a _wonderful_ incentive!"

Nabiki herself blinked, not at the words, but at the focus of Kasumi's attacks. Clearly she had been trying to assess just how dangerous this would be. Ukyo watched the middle Tendo then shiver with a calculating look towards her older sister. Ukyo didn't want to be anywhere near a bout between those two minds. A callous Kasumi somehow seemed far more dangerous than Nabiki when pressed.

Setsoki, having just realized he had bitten much more than he could chew, stumbled over his words. "I… I… she er… The empress assured us that you ten would have no cause for worry whatsoever."

Ukyo almost giggled. About time the man showed a bit of humility. And Nabiki too for that matter.

"Hmph. Some guarantee. Look at the welcome she gives your other visitors." Kasumi remarked wryly.

Setsoki sighed, somewhat irritated, and at the same time a bit respectful of the twenty three year old woman. "You are afraid to cross. I understand. Regardless, you have been fully briefed of everything we know. Anyone who does not wish to go to China may leave now. Otherwise, follow me."

With that, he turned and left the room pushing open two wide doors, which men in black suits stood at to hold open.

A moment of somewhat surprised silence swept the room. Ukyo watched the man humorlessly stride away down a long corridor covered with exotic paintings and fine carpeting, until he disappeared around a corner.

Another moment was spent eying one another until finally, Ryoga stood. Followed quickly by everyone else. The boy immediately walked in the wrong direction until a bonbori found its way to his forehead. Ukyo giggled, and the lost boy only deigned to glare at Xian Pu before turning and following the others.

Ukyo followed too.

* * *

"Right this way Ma'am! Please keep up!" Said a smiling young woman of no older than twenty, gesturing Akane along slowly. The girl wore a strange assortment of formal and informal dress that Akane had no idea how to classify her. No different from anyone else here, but completely different from the black suited men that had escorted them right up until they had left the helicopter in China's Japanese Embassy, she wore a pair of baggy, slack-like pants and a deep blue tunic, all tied together with a sash and scarf that would have made her stand out like a beacon of 'strange' in Japan.

Heavily accented Japanese, but more than well researched in her vocabulary and probably a very good choice for a translator or guide, her name was Lao Min. And Akane couldn't help but consider her very strange. Even for China.

"Ma'am, please?" She gestured almost pleadingly. "I don't want to keep the Empress waiting any more than she already has. She is very anxious to meet you all!"

Akane blinked. "Wh-what? I'm sorry? What did you say?" She asked apologetically.

The woman sighed exasperatedly and gestured to the others who were already a long ways ahead of her in the long hallway of the Embassy. Only she, Mousse a step ahead of her, and Ukyo caught following her and idly prodding her along at that, remained behind, the others all more than a hundred paces ahead and walking quickly.

Mousse, at the attention given to her, turned and gave her a hard, pressing look. Having the decency to blush, Akane continued along, walking past Mousse and Lao Min quickly to avoid both of their gazes.

She bit her lip. She'd bitten it so many times within the past two day that it was easier to mark the times when she _wasn't_ biting the damn thing. She only really remembered to stop when the taste of blood reached her tongue. Even then, only slightly.

Mousse was eyeing her strangely. He had been doing so the entire ride over the sea and nothing could have made her more nervous. Nothing.

'_He knows!' _She thought weakly. _'Dammit, Akane you're such an _idiot! _Why didn't you clean up those damn wrappers!?_' She mentally kicked herself.

About half way through the helicopter ride across the Sea of Japan was the time she thought the shocked look had finally eased off her boyfriend's face. That was the only thing she'd cared to look at, having completely missed almost everything about their trip over. All she knew was that the Amazon's expression had faded, only to become a series of emotions that even _she_ could read. Disbelief. Worry. Anxiety…

…Happiness? Elation?

Worst of all, was that strange… expecting look he kept giving her.

Perhaps she couldn't read his emotions as well as she had thought.

'_Dammit! I don't wanna tell him! Kasumi! I have to get Kasumi alone to… to talk to her!' _She thought weakly.

She walked along slowly, her feet being guided more by the urging voice of Lao Min from behind her than anything else. Her mind was so far away from this impromptu hike that she felt like she probably wouldn't even remember it by the time they got back home.

Mousse… How will Mousse react? How? How?

She asked herself over and over again, but she just couldn't answer. She knew he was a good man. It wasn't likely that he would just shotgun back to China…

'_But he sure has the opportunity now doesn't he? Idiot! Why didn't you think about that!? You shouldn't have come on this stupid trip! Now he'll _definitely_ shotgun right back to the Amazon Village! Besides, you're in no position to be thinking about your own good, let alone that of Japan!' _Her conscience screamed in her mind. She couldn't help but agree with it and wanted nothing more than to bash herself with a stick. Maybe bang her head against the wall.

Her eyes traveled across it and she decided that would be a bad idea. Polished marble.

Slowly, a few turns later through large vaunted corridors that all appeared to have seen better days, some with tiles having even fallen off the ceilings only to shatter on the hard stone floor, the group came upon a row of revolving doors leading into the outside.

Walking briskly, Akane caught up to Ryoga just as he entered one of the doors and stepped out into the sunlight of a midday.

Her jaw dropped, and all thoughts of Mousse evaporated in awe and terror.

The first thing she saw was the rubble. The ground was littered with more rocks and stones, all jagged and harsh in shapes that clearly had once been smooth and even. Concrete smashed to pieces.

Sidewalks lay cracked everywhere and people dotted the area, digging through mounds of rubble. Poking at them for belongings. Maybe even loved ones. Some tearfully digging, their hands rubbed raw and bleeding all over, but still refusing to stop their endless trek through the hard debris.

Her eyes trailed all around, down the vast street covered in rocks and the remains of street lights and vehicles that was once a bustling road in the middle of a once beautiful city.

Traveling skyward, her view reached the other buildings. Some stood tall and firm, shaved open so she could see right into the very rooms that had once been enclosed. Some had obviously once been twice as tall as they now stood, the tops of their towers now fallen across more rubble covered streets.

Blood scraped along signs and fences and buildings on all sides and the building she had just exited had not been spared of that. Somehow, the thing still stood, but in looking up, she found that it, too, was missing the top of its once tall spire.

All at once she realized what it was the other members of her helicopters flight had gasped at during the last several minutes of flight. She had been too depressed, to worried and concerned with Mousse to take note.

Now she wished she had.

Papers decorated every wall. Littered papers blowing around freely in the wind fallen from the remains of buildings or billboards that had also been destroyed.

Bits of road curved up towards the sky, while others plunged into the earth leaving bare patches of land, and shining arches of road, as if the very ground itself had roiled, and the roads were mere strings wriggling along its top.

"Come on!" Lao Min said, still cheerily. "You must _hurry!"_

"B-but…! But!" Akane's eyes fell on a young child, kneeling in the stone. Her hands were dirty and her eyes lay staring blankly into a framed photograph, it's glass cracked down the middle, and tears dribbling down onto it.

A young man staring at a short building the above him reading a strange title that was now only half there, along with the right side of the building. He stared blankly as if he would never live again… as if he had lost everything important.

Suddenly, Akane felt herself pushed from behind. She turned around to glare at Lao Min. How… how could the girl be so cheerful?

Dried onto a nearby wall, written in blood, lay a half-written Chinese kanji for 'help.' The rest was a handprint trailing down the wall. She could almost see the body that had scrawled that weak message before sliding down to die. Or worse.

"Come! All is well! Come!" Lao Min insisted.

And Akane's eyes fell on it. Perhaps a mile away, hidden by the stubs of a few once tall buildings, lay a Tower. Seemingly triple the size of Tokyo Tower, it stood gleaming against the bright midday sun; the sun was a weak comparison to its brilliance. The spire gleamed in a holy light; crafted of a white ivory, it glowed with a luster that outshined the moon and the stars and everything else she had ever seen. Like a sword trying to grasp the edges of the sky, it grew out of the ground. It had no windows, or perhaps it was just so big that from this distance the windows were not visible to her.

She was one of the first citizens of a foreign country to visit China in the last two years. Helicopters, planes… nothing could break through the wall of war that China had been, and none wanted to venture in. Because, well… none yet who had, had managed to venture back _out._

During the early stages, Akane vaguely remembered from around the time little Ranma-chan was born, Japan had tried to catch film of what was going on in China. Hundreds of dead reporters later and news crews stopped being brave. The story of a lifetime, yes. But was it worth the risk?

Since then, none had thought so.

Akane supposed the government had sent in automated planes and the like, but none of that information had been release to the press. Whatever had been happening right across the sea was a mystery to most of Japan, but it had effected them little. The war in general had barely touched them.

Some foods were a bit harder to find. Some products that had once been plentiful were now scarce. Other than that though? The war in China had yet to affect them, really, beyond the shock value of knowing people were losing their lives daily.

Some muttered about how it had only been a matter of time. So many people there, it was only a matter of time until a war began that could wreck the giant nation. The Soviet Union was much the same. The cold war had been raging strongly but even that had little effect on Akane or anyone she knew.

Japan, smartly, was staying uninvolved.

And now she saw why. This tower had never been a part of Beijing. Not in any of the pictures she'd seen. Not… anywhere, had she seen a building like this.

"Come _on!" _Lao Min insisted angrily, and Akane jumped as she realized she had stopped again.

Quickly, she hurried her step.

"I'm very sorry young miss," Came Nodoka's sudden voice, and Akane jumped again, surprised. "But we _must_ check in to wherever it is you will be having us stay. As you can hear, my daughter is quite angry."

Abruptly, Akane noticed the sound of a crying baby, and recognized it at Nodoka and Genma's young daughter Ranma-chan. Looking ahead, she saw Genma struggling to quiet the young babe, while he stared around in awe that still had not faded from his first view of Beijing in the helicopter. Akane wished she hadn't been so damn distracted!

Lao Min's grin widened. "Very good! You will be staying in the palace with Empress Ruby. All you must do is hurry. The empress is waiting."

A sharp glare was directed Akane's way before vanishing from the girl's face. Still, she prodded Akane along like a mother pushing a young child.

Akane noticed Ukyo giggle. Mousse was still staring around the city in shocked horror. This was a place he had likely been before in his life… To see it changed so… must hurt. It must make him worry for the home he once dwelled within.

Well, he was an Amazon no more… hopefully he wouldn't…

'_Gah! I have to stop thinking about this!' _She thought heatedly. Steeling her step, she walked forward at a brisk pace so as to catch up with those that had left her behind. Ever towards the glimmering spire in the distance.

* * *

Dr. Tofu thought of himself as a very logical man. Now, though, his logic and his heart were warring together. Logically, it would be best to meet this new empress. Find out who, or what, she wanted, and get out.

But the people in this desolate place screamed for a healer. Screamed for someone of his talent to rid them of their pains. His heart burned with the need to stop and heal every cut. Reset every bone.

Kasumi somehow realized this and led him along firmly, holding her arm behind his back, and he was more than thankful for it. Publicly, Kasumi had lost much of the motherly attitude she had once held, but privately, she was still every bit as fragile. Only he was allowed to see that side of her now. At times, her family glimpsed vague images of the old Kasumi, but she had turned cold to almost everyone.

Ranma had meant as much to her as he had to Akane or Xian Pu or Ukyo. In a different way… but it had scarred her just as much. She felt the family had betrayed him somehow. That they should have gone with him.

Maybe they should have. But then, maybe they would have died as well.

Kasumi knew it wasn't their fault the boy had died. Mousse and Ryoga she blamed most of all, but it still wasn't their fault. What more could they have done? Dive under a falling mountain? Right.

Tofu shook himself. Thinking of Kasumi's past was a good way to distract him from the hurts of those around him, but he couldn't afford to be distant from a situation like this.

The strange part about it all, was that despite the rubble. All the cracked houses and broken bones. Blood covered walls. Toppled buildings. Despite _everything_, most of the people were not grieving. No. They were _rejoicing!_ Something _good_ had happened.

And he simply _had_ to understand what.

People, happy people, sidled along those who had clearly lost homes or loved ones and roused them to cheer. As if things would be better now.

Empress Ruby, Empress Ruby, The Empress of Fire who calls down the sky has come to save us all, Tofu made out from his broken understanding of Chinese. And many other names and titles were spouted in happiness. Some even danced around small bon-fires. Many still picked at rubble in grief but many more were joyous. As if a new age had come. As if… all was well?

Tofu could hardly fathom it.

Added to that, the spire, a backdrop to the entirety of Beijing's capital, grew ever closer. Now Dr. Tofu could make out small details. Balconies circled the bladed tower, and on each balcony, a hundred archers or gunners or more stood gleaming in pristine armor. Cannons or trebuchets stood by the hundreds along the entire building.

The only thing marring the building was a long wide gash down the front, as if a sword the size of a mountain had sliced down through the edge to pierce the glimmering walls with a blacken-charred scar.

As they grew closer, the walls surrounding the spire came into view. A keep, like from stories and fairy tales of old, the walls stood as tall as many buildings Tofu was familiar with from Tokyo.

If the buildings near the embassy had been toppled, these walls were decimated. Standing at so many different levels of height they might as well have been hills, the walls were destroyed. Crafted of stone and brick, to look akin to the Great Wall of China itself, not a one stood as beautiful as it once had.

The walls… the city… all of it had only just recently come out of a battle of magnitudes Dr. Tofu could hardly imagine.

Yet still, now the people rejoiced.

The Empress of the Sky has come. Let her reign forever. The Empress of the Sky has come.

Tofu had to try hard not to gape.

* * *

Nabiki shivered as she calculated the damage costs of the buildings around him. Millions of yen would have to be spent and re-spent to return even half of these once prestigious buildings to their proper order. The walls… god, the poor walls would never be rebuilt.

That great gash in the tower would be more expensive than anything, she bet. Try as she might, she simply could not discern what the tower was made of. Added to all of it, the people, chanting in the streets in some strange and words, some even dancing around fires. Having feasts in closed tents erected as temporary homes.

They passed by a shelter where thousands were waiting in hundreds of lines for a portion of soup. Happy faces, bloomed everywhere. She couldn't understand the language but 'happy' was universal.

It was not long before they stood at the crumbled gates of the walls that surrounded the tower. Nabiki felt more and more intimidated by the thing as she approached. At least double the highest tower she had ever resided within.

The gates crumbled a bit as they were opened for the party, after Lao Min shot a few spitfire Chinese barks up at the men on the half broken bridge top.

The way opened to a small courtyard, littered with craters, dirt, and the remains of once pristine pathways. Somewhat gothic in appearance, little grass decorated this strange court, but hundreds of potted plants lined every wall, with a surprisingly small number of them toppled. It seemed the tower's walls had taken far more damage than the tower itself had. Only that one long gash near the top.

"Jeez this is a long walk. Can't we get a car or something?" She complained, annoyed at just how long the distance between the walls and the building itself appeared to be. She realized that was a pretty dumb question. Cars would not be able to navigate these rubble covered pits and mounds, but still. They were national ambassadors for crying out loud!

Lao Min almost glared. Instead she settled for mumbling, "Annoying Japanese, always complaining. Why does Empress Ruby want to meet them so much? Bah…"

Nabiki only barely made out the words, but they made her smile. Lao Min's cheery attitude, faked though it may be, had been irritating her to no end, and she was glad to see that the girl was more than some strange and relentlessly happy robot.

Before too long, but far longer than Nabiki would have wished, her aching legs viewed a staircase leading high into a giant entry way into the spire; she could barely see the doors, but already she could tell that even the tallest man would need double his own height to touch the tops.

"… Someone's compensating for something…" She murmured angrily.

Kasumi giggled heartlessly, and Ryoga chuckled as well. Lao Min looked at her, confused.

Silently now, the group plodded up the buildings stairs. Akane kept shooting questioning glances Mousse's way when she thought he wasn't looking, and Nabiki noticed that Mousse did the same to her.

Ryoga held Shampoo lightly, his arm wrapped around her lower back comfortingly and they walked as if that were the way they were born to.

Ranma-chan still cried in Genma's big arms and Nodoka tried uselessly to shush the girl. Probably needed a diaper change or something. Nabiki grimaced at the thought. She hated kids. Always had.

Lao Min busily prodded them along, not looking a bit tired. Nabiki supposed none of the martial artists in their group did. She could tell Kasumi and Nodoka both were feeling the burn in their legs, and her father, Soun, to some degree at least did as well. The others might as well have taken a few steps for all the tiredness they appeared to have.

After what seemed an eternity of climbing, gladly thanking whoever it was that had cleared the rubble from these stairs at least, and painstakingly avoiding the dangerous holes that decorated the steps, they came to the giant double doors.

The doors swung open slowly, and Nabiki was greeted with a magnificent front entry way, covered in carpet that seemed fit for a king. Or empress.

They stepped in, and Nabiki heard gasps from all around. High above hung ten bandoliers all dotting the sides of the carpet that ran up a few more beautiful steps. Stone pillars also lined the carpet holding up immaculate tapestries and a ceiling painted with figures of war and killing and anger. Many of those had been painted over, and were even being painted over as she watched. Giant ladders holding men and women, white-coating the gruesome ceiling, and readying it for new scenes. Or at least she hoped so.

The walls held windows on both sides made of stained glass, leading to still other rooms beyond them.

To the far back of the room, more stairs, carpeted with the same red carpet they now stood on, both sides of the yin and yang symbol decorating them in seemingly random patterns trailed up and behind the immaculate throne that stood in the center, raised up and above everything else.

Nabiki almost fainted.

Atop the glistening silver throne that would have made the tower itself seem a pale comparison, sat one man.

"May I introduce," Lao Min stated grandly with a wide sweep of her hands, and a chuckle at her lips, "_Empress_ Ruby?"

Changed… but he was without a doubt, Ranma Saotome.

The man glared heatedly at Lao Min, and those around him, who laughed. "Dammit, Lao Min…" He sighed.

It seemed almost minutes before the shocked surprise faded from the martial artists of Nerima. Then, they rushed him.

* * *

Ryoga's eyes remained widened in the purest of shock, even minutes after the others had actually felt him. Touched him to make sure he was not some mirage. Ranma. The _Emperor of China!_ Ranma had left little Nerima behind and become the fucking _Emperor! _

_Of China!_

Ryoga almost laughed aloud at Lao Min's introduction of him, but he didn't. Glee filled him as well as a goodly portion of dread. He had mixed feeling about the whole thing. Watching as Akane hugged him. Shampoo as well, and Ukyo. None of them glomped him like they might have years ago, and that made Ryoga so happy on its own that he thought he might cry. Xian Pu… really did love him. Ryoga Hibiki. She had moved on past Ranma, and now it seemed it was only mere gladness that he was alive that spurned the girl's teary eyes.

Added to that was the fact that Ranma was _different. _The cocky grin he had always sported, no matter what the situation was _gone. _Not a trace of that remained. Instead the man seemed quiet, reserved… and _dangerous. _Gone was the martial artist of old.

Scars traced his bare arms from top to bottom, worried Ryoga. A particularly nasty one marred his once pristine face, slicing down his eye, and cheek, and collar bone, all the way to his neck in one long, ugly gash. What in god's name had happened to Ranma between Mount Horaisan and now?

Gone was the pigtail. His hair short and un-bound, waved about his neck spiking somewhat, was held out of his eyes only by the small, silver Diadem signaling his new position. Gone was the seemingly weak physique Ranma once held, in comparison to himself at least, now broadened by what seemed ages of physical effort.

His clothes though… those remained, punctuated by the sigil of a giant Yin pattern on the front, as deep a black as it could ever be, and a yang on his back, whiter than snow. The rest of his shirt remained his trademark red and bluish-black pants.

Adding to his strangeness was the presence of four _manacles _on his wrists and ankles, where once his arm bracers had been. Simple, metal manacles, grey and dulled with age, yet rustless. That was what they seemed to be at least.

Add to that, the man appeared to be… _wary _of everyone. And everything. As if he'd grown fearful of attention somehow. Or… just paranoid of everything.

But beyond everything, he was Ranma. Without a doubt he was Ranma. His rival, long dead, now stood before him in new and empowered glory. Ryoga's skin prickled at the thought of challenging him once again, excitement blaring in his bones. What would it be like to battle his old rival once again? A shiver ran up his spine at the thought. But first his story. Why had he not returned home? Why…?

Ranma slowly threw a few of them off, words having not come from any of them. His mother, bawling into his shoulder. Genma silently standing back, tears of joy trailing down his eyes as he held his small daughter. Even she seemed to have calmed down.

Another three hands embraced him from behind and Ryoga could tell Ranma had become very uncomfortable. Then… angry. "B-Back off! Everyone!" He stated. His voice was calm. Deeper than it once had been. Ryoga couldn't fathom why. Perhaps just age? Regardless, his simple word held enough power in it to make those surrounding him step back.

Ryoga felt a wave of power emanate from the man and he shivered. Dangerous. Yes. This man, Ranma though he may be, was… _dangerous. _That didn't matter though. _He_ was dangerous, too.

Still, Ryoga couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by Ranma's eyes. Once light and happy, they now held a razor sharp edge that could pierce through stone.

Suddenly, Ranma scratched the back of his head, nervousness, and a bit of his old awkwardness returning. "I… I'm sorry. I just… don't like people touching me…" He murmured. "But… what am I having you all wait here for? Come on. Come on! Sit down!" He exclaimed lightly, his tone changing slightly as he walked.

Slowly, he walked through the mass of them, and led them to a door adjacent to the room's throne, and Ryoga found himself in a grand foyer. Ranma gestured towards the various sofas and chairs situated about this unbelievable room's interior, as he himself walked around to sit in a rather uncomfortable looking chair on the far end of the room.

"H-How…? Ran-chan? How did… how did this all—? I mean… what happened to you? We… all thought you were dead… for so long…" Ukyo exclaimed through her tears.

Ryoga could see the lonely girl's wishes brimming in her eyes, and a pang of sympathy shoot through him. Somehow he'd grown to find the love of his life, but Ukyo hadn't found anyone. Ryoga almost hoped Ranma would become her fiancé again. For her sake. Ukyo had always seemed so lonely every since Ranma died, and worse with Konatsu. Not as bad as Akane had been for either of them really… but anyone could see that her thoughts had never trailed far from the two of them, even years after their 'deaths.'

Ranma frowned. "I-I'd rather… uhm… I missed you all. Very much. I'd… I'd like to hear, what you have been up to, in the years I've been—"

"I want to know too, Saotome…" Mousse cut in. "I've… I've felt so guilty for the past two years. I… always wished there had been something more I could've done. We searched Horaisan for months… but all we ever found was your bracer." The no-longer-blind man toned politely.

"I…" Ranma began hesitantly. Then he gave a sigh. As if he'd wished there'd been another way to go about this.

"Yes Son! Tell us how you became emperor, eh?" Soun exclaimed, his voice brimming over in joy the likes of which Ryoga had never seen on him.

Ryoga sat slowly on the end of one of the three couches, close to Ranma's chair in the back, and was happy to find Xian Pu sliding quickly into his embrace, even though her eyes were trained irretrievably onto Ranma.

Ryoga had to admit, he was on the edge of his plush couch seat to hear the beginning of his old rival's story. All the nights he'd woken up in cold sweats thinking about the rival he'd not even tried to rescue. Watching as the whole of the mountain seemed to fall down on both he and his opponent. All the self hatred. Only to find, now, that Ranma had, somehow, miraculously survived.

Had Ranma been wearing his old cocky smirk, Ryoga knew he would have already lost it. But no. This was an older Ranma. An older Ryoga.

Ranma ignored them for a moment, and his eyes fell on the small child in Genma's arms.

Slowly, he stood, and walked to the char where Genma had sat. Kneeling down, he stared into the eyes of the girl, her gleaming red hair a mirror to the hair of Ranma's girl form.

"Who is this…?" He asked, slowly, his eyes rising to meet those of his father.

"I… this is Ranma-chan. We… we named her after you…" Genma said weakly. "My boy… I… I'm so glad you're alive."

Ranma stared at the girl, who stared back just as calmly. Her small eyes confused. Then, delighted. She grabbed at Ranma's diadem, and a few soldiers at the room's doors, whom Ryoga had yet to notice, gasped in shock.

Ranma gave a smile, and the girl's face lit up. "You are a cute little one…" He said lightly, and Ryoga felt he had stepped off a cliff. Was this _really_ Ranma? "Heh. I have a sister… Always wanted one you know." He said, meeting Genma's eyes again.

"Ranma…?" Akane questioned slowly, her impatience reaching new heights. Ukyo 'hmmed' right on top of her.

"It… it's a l-long story." He stuttered as he sat. Where had all of his confidence gone? Ranma…?

"We've got the time, Saotome." Nabiki piped in casually as always, while lay down on one of the couches seated around the room's spacious interior.

Akane seemed so wound upon Ranma's words that she couldn't stand it. "Why didn't you come back? Wh-why would you just let us all think you _died! _Why, dammit?!" The girl burst suddenly. "Why didn't you… come back to me…?"

Ranma's eyes gleamed with anger.

"I couldn't! You think I didn't want to!?" He barked, his ruse at fragility gone, anger riding on his words. His eyes flared, and Akane jumped at the hate in his tongue.

Ryoga could see fear flashing across Mousse eyes, as he subtly stepped himself between Ranma and Akane. Akane… Akane wouldn't hurt Mousse like that. She wouldn't try to go back for Ranma again, would she?

Xian Pu wouldn't at least. Of that, he was sure.

Ryoga was glad to see Mousse's worry flash away as Ranma barked at the girl, his words attacking, as strong as any punch or kick. He was… a hard man. No longer carefree. No longer young. In any form of the word.

"S-Sorry…" Ranma said, once again trying to act civil. Ryoga hadn't seen it before, but now it was clear. Ranma was _angry. _Visibly trying to calm himself at least, but he was still _angry! _At them. At _all _of them. But it seemed it was Akane for whom he held a particularly strong grudge.

But he didn't want to be angry either. As if he was warring with himself on what to feel.

And Ryoga couldn't for the life of him make out why.

"I… I'm gonna leave out stuff. I… things happened. Things that no one should know about. Things no one should ever have to live through. But… I guess… it all started…"

"…_**about two years and five months ago."**_

_**

* * *

**_

Chell shivered as the gates opened to her cell. That was a rare thing. They never opened her cell door to give her food.

'_Why is someone here!?' _She thought frantically, the sound of the door jerking her into a semi-panic. Worriedly, she tugged on her waist-long light green hair, as she tried to get her eye to adjust to the small light, glinting off the armor her visitor wore.

The barred doors creaked open, and through the dim light, she had trouble making out who it was. Just the usual guard, who often gave her pitying looks… or… someone more sinister.

Her eyes drew up, and saw the shadow of what could only be one man. Her body _crawled_ in horror.

'_No…. not more… Oh god. I've stayed quiet haven't I? I'm broken! Broken! S-so just leave me alone! I've done everything you've asked!' _She screamed in her mind.

"S-stay away…." She couldn't stop the terrified words from dripping out of her mouth. Her voice didn't work very well. All the better. The less she said, the less likely they were to notice her. And she didn't think he heard her.

Being '_broken'_ bored them. If they were bored, they left her alone. And that was the most one could hope for in this place. They always had new prisoners to 'try out.' To torture into mindless numbness. To laugh at while they screamed.

She'd run out of room on the walls to mark how long she'd been here. The room was a square cell, three sides made of stone, and the final side crafted purely of thin bars. Even the bars had tallies on them to try to mark how many days she'd resided here.

The gate squealed further, as the man suddenly jerked it fully open. An eerie, revolting sound, that mimicked a cry of death to her ears. And she jumped, shivering at the screech. She'd never gotten used to it.

"Hello, little Sage." Came the low, distinct voice of one of the many torturers who had laid hands to her. Damn that name. God damn that name! Her name was Chell!

But she didn't have the will to say anything like that. She knew what that caused. Better to be broken… stripped of her name, than to have her ribs broken again.

They still burned. And it had been at least a year since they had last touched her. Or… maybe it had only been a month? Time grew… strange in here. The only way she could even tell what time of day it was, was by sticking her head between the bars to see the sun filtering in through the small crack in the wall three cells down…

She envied the person in that cell so much! How great would it be to be able to watch the sun rise through that tiny crack!

"How've you been, darlin'?" The man asked. Kindly.

Her spine trembled. Borage… it was… _Borage!_

"I…! I…!" The word would _not _leave her mouth. Her fear screamed in her mind. Panic began to overwhelm her.

"N-_No!_ I've been good! I've been g—!" Her jaw snapped shut, as he stepped forward.

The man smiled, cheerily. Slowly, he reached down his giant arm, and grabbed her jaw between his thumb and first finger. The clawed horns protruding from his gloves at the knuckles scrapped along her face, cutting it. She didn't notice. Her terror would not let her notice.

His broad shoulders stretching wider than three Amazons, and his grip around her chin felt as if a clamp that would break her very bones into pieces. Each finger seemed as if it were the size of her hand… and she knew that he could. He… need only pinch those two fingers together, to break her jaw in half.

She wanted to beg… plead. Anything! Anything to get him away from her. To get those grim Rhino-horn pauldrons, and that leer _away_ from her!

She tried to hold back a gulp as the man thrust his pelvis forward. Only the slightest bit.

Tears began rolling down her eyes.

"Ah… sage… how would you like to come with me…? Eh?" He suggested slyly. As if flirting with her.

He dropped something that had been flung over his other shoulder onto the floor with a hollow thud. Then, his other arm reached around her.

'_NO! No! P-please!' _She screamed in her mind.

"N… N-Nnn—!" She tried to say. All that she managed was to scrape her feet uselessly against the stone floor, as if any amount of strength she held could ever pry her from his grasp.

She'd long forgotten her pride. Long forgotten what it meant to think she was worth something. Now the only thing there was, was staying away from _pain._

He gave her a big grin, and his other hand suddenly touched her back. It was almost gentle.

Her tears had become rivers. His hard grey eyes seemed to laugh at her, as he pushed her body towards his.

He only grinned wider. And thrust himself again.

Chell wanted to scream. Her mind wanted her to scream. But she couldn't. Her jaw locked in place, she couldn't make a sound. Not even to beg…

"Mmmm…." He moaned, his grey tinted skin, sliding against her partially-naked body, hooked nose staring down at her, with his hard, blackened eyes.

'_Please….'_ She prayed. _'Not again…'_

And without warning, he dropped her. She gasped, both in relief as the pain ceased in her jaw, and at being let go. Her legs, wobbly with terror, couldn't hold her, and she crumpled to the ground in a heap, banging her head against the thin layer of straw lying on the stone cell floor that served as her bed.

"Stand up." He demanded.

Obedience was law. If both her legs were broken, she would have still stood. Her head throbbed, and her entire body shivered with terror. Phantom wounds from long ago, screamed at her to give in to his every whim, if only at the _chance_ of avoiding more torture or rape.

He stood and turned around, the horns on his boots scraping her leg and carving a bleeding gash into it. She couldn't hold back the yelp as she pulled her leg back, and did her best to silence herself, crying noiselessly through the pain.

Bending over, Borage stared down at the toppled thing he'd dropped earlier.

Chell's eyes didn't leave him. Didn't even glance away.

Borage turned heavily, standing again to face down at her, towering over her by almost five heads. She couldn't stop the tears. Then, suddenly, he turned his eyes away from her a bit to stare at the thing he had dropped on the ground before. "I'll be back for her… she's my new pet. And she'll be much more fun than you. I think I'll call her Ruby. After that beautiful red hair. Sound familiar? Sage? Take good care of her… and I mean that… I want her ready to fight back."

"Y… Ye!" Chell squeaked. It actually came out this time. She thought it did.

He smiled. He took a step toward her. Involuntarily, she took a step back.

He bared his teeth in rage. Without warning, his hand shot to the thin piece of wool fabric she wore, clenching it between her breasts and neck, and lifting her off her feet as if he were lifting a feather.

"You _deny_ me!?" He snarled, his eyes now staring directly into hers. She could feel the steam hissing from his pointy nostrils, burning her eyebrows.

"N-no! Never, Master!" Chell exclaimed, her voice found at last.

His angry snarl became a malicious grin. "Of course you wouldn't…"

His free hand trailed down to her backside. The horns of his gloves tore into her flesh and she only barely suppressed a shriek, as he cupped her.

"You are _mine!"_ He screamed at her.

Suddenly, she felt herself slam into the wall of the cell, and slide down it to crumple against the floor. "Y-yes… Master…" She whispered, dazed, her voice failing her once again, her head and back screaming in anguish. Her tears had not even begun to stop.

"Clean her wounds, Sage. With your tongue. If she doesn't _sparkle_ tomorrow, then trust me… _you will bleed._" His voice was low, and he didn't not wait for a response. Turning abruptly, he strode to the door, giving one long, low moan as he stared at the toppled girl's upturned assets, and walked out.

Chell jumped at the sound of her cell gate slamming closed.

Her fear having taken her, she dared not make a sound until his heavy, shaking footsteps were long gone. Then, as her eyes trailed across the small red-haired girl on the ground, she began to crawl over to her, weeping as she did.

As she slowly reached the girl, her eyes widened in shock. On her both her ankles and wrists lay eight manacles.

"_Eight…" _She breathed. "By god… what is she…?"

Beaten, was what she was. Beaten to within an inch of her life. A centimeter. Less. But… to have _eight manacles. _She was a tiny slip of a girl. Why under all that was holy did they put…?

Fearfully, she glanced over her shoulder. No one was there, but she would take no chances.

She rolled the girl over onto her back. For a moment, she bit her lip and shivered. Her legs were _covered_ in blood… and worse things. Bile rose in her throat and she only barely held it down.

She began at the girl's ankles…

* * *

Ranma shivered as she awoke. Pain lanced through her as her eyes filtered in the pain of her wounds, but it was less than it had been. She had been through much worse. Or at least that's what she was telling herself even as her mind return to the realm of the living.

Something strange, wet and harsh trailed along her chest and she twitched. Her ribs stung like fire, and whatever the thing was doing, it wasn't helping. Burning, it felt like salt being dropped into her veins.

Instantly, she batted the strange thing away from her, but even that was weak, as she only barely startled it, feeling hair clench in her weak fists, as she tried to push.

"Wh-what are… where am I?" She murmured drearily. "H-hey! Cut that out!" She exclaimed, realizing abruptly that the thing on top of her was a person, her hair a shimmery green, now fading with the first hints of age.

The girl did not move to stop. Instead, she brought one hand, shakily up to Ranma's own and pulled it off of her hair, only to continue… whatever it was she was doing.

Ranma felt pain jolt through her entire body as the next sliced-skin-wound between her rib was licked. She let loose a light scream of shock, arching her back in pain off the hard tile floor.

"Wh-what the hell…?" She asked, when the pain subsided a bit. "What are you do—?"

"P-please… don't struggle… be quiet! Or… or they'll hear you…! H-he might come back! God, please be quiet!" The woman below her begged, half deliriously. Then, with strength that Ranma was not in any condition to counter, the woman forced her arms to her sides and again began licking at the next slice upon the next rib up.

Ranma couldn't hold back her scream this time. Bits of skin, pried open from the torture she had received wilted under the woman's tongue.

Slowly, memories surfaced. Herb…. That bastard Herb. Borage… If Herb was a bastard then Borage was a god damned demon. She twitched as she remembered just how much she had hurt before. Now was only a slight pinch compared to before…

Four vertical slices lined her chest, each following areas between two ribs.

As the pain eased slightly in her ribs, so too did the lesser pains brim up to the forefront of her mind. Borage… Borage was his name. He was the one who had raped her. That hadn't hurt so much as the knives. The bastard was sick, but rape just wasn't very effective of a torture on her predominantly male mind. Sick… god, she shivered at just _how_ sick… but she could handle it. At least she thought she could. She wanted to vomit every bit of her insides to purge this body that was not her own of the devastation that had been wrought upon it. The fact that she _wasn't_ a girl was probably the only thing keeping her _sane _after… _-that-._

She remembered the anger. For Borage. The mindless rhino of a man. He thought he was strong… ha. She would show him the meaning of strong… she would… just as soon as she got these damn manacles off… And Herb. Her hate climbed even higher. "God damn you, Herb… I saved your life… god… god damn you…!" She seethed, even as she felt the girl atop her shift her tongue to the fourth and final cut. Another scream was pried from Ranma's lips as the woman ran her tongue along the slit Borage's dagger had sliced open. Ranma knew it hurt but she also knew that it was far better than leaving the wounds un-tended at all.

Where was she…? Anger was clouding her every thought. Borage. Damn… Damn! Give her a fair fight and she would _destroy_ him! God damn manacles!

"You are… feeling better?" The woman asked weakly. Broken Japanese, she sounded very much like Xian Pu.

"Gaah… I'm… fine." She breathed, half angry with herself, mad with rage at Borage. And Herb… oh god… Herb, would feel her wrath. They had chosen the wrong man to torture. Break him…? Make him one of those mindless drones they seemed to call their pets? Have her wear one of those leather collars like a dog? Hah… they would sooner break the sun.

Bruises matted her body, and she felt the pain of every one of them. Both eyes black, and swollen lips bloodied, and her knuckles felt like they were on fire. Between her legs felt even worse… though she thought that might all be in her mind. Violation screamed in her, and she couldn't help the involuntary shiver that course through her as she recalled the twisted mating.

She wanted to say she didn't care. That it didn't matter. This wasn't really her body anyway… To some degree, that worked. She lay there, barely able to move as the woman licked her everywhere, cleaning her own dried blood and sealing her wounds.

Soundlessly screaming in her fury she pushed at the woman's head to get her away , but she was just too weak. _'God damn manacles!' _She bellowed uselessly in her mind. _'Get off of me!'_

By the time it was over, Ranma felt as if she might never move again. The ghosts of tears shimmered at her eyes from the pain, and the memory of pain. She dared not let one fall. Gods did it hurt though! If… if only she could just calm down! She had to.. had to think. She was in a prison cell. Manacles robbed her of the ability to summon her ki. She was angry… so… angry…

She'd never felt so weak in her life, or so angry at the same time.

"It… hurts…" She let slip, and mentally slapped herself, even though she couldn't have stopped the pained words. She was not weak. It took minutes. But she lightly placed her hands behind her and pushed herself back up. Naked save for the manacles, her eyes burned with unholy flame.

Hatred, and self hatred gave her strength that she had never touched and she gathered her breath in her lungs. Breathed… Calm. Calm rage. Each breath made her ribs sting but she ignored them. Letting anger be her fuel, pain her bread and butter, her strength began to swell.

"G… god damn… Borage!" She screamed.

"Sh-shut up!" The woman pleaded, diving on her, her green hair shimmering in the dim light filtering in from a nearby cell. "D-do you w-want him to come back?"

Ranma's strength grew and simmered, and she wrenched the woman's hands from her mouth, throwing her off, and standing to her feet in one fluid motion.

"Borage!" She screamed. "Borage!!"

Hate and rage boiled together to create a fire within her that could crush a mountain. That _had_ crushed a mountain. Her pain draining away into the rush of her adrenaline, she swelled more and more of her ki. She felt the manacles strain to contain all that was within her. Eight of the metal clasps, two for each of her ankles and wrists, all straining to hold back everything she had ever been.

"BORAGE!!" Her voice cracked in hatred so strong that she thought she would drown in it. Power ribbed through the manacles and she felt them all begin to vibrate. She would break them… she would break them and kill that man, if it was the last thing she ever did.

One cracked.

Something hard and heavy bashed her in the head, and all was dark.

**End Chapter One**

**Author's Notes: **So did you bring your flashlight? Told you you'd need it. Dunno how well you may or may not like this, but as promised it is dark. Similar to Secret Stolen Smiles, this story will be told in a past/future type of style. But from now on most of it will be the past. I have a few grand finales planned for later on in the present time, but honestly this fic is called 'Her War' for a reason. It's _about_ her war! ^_^;

And Honestly, I'll admit I've been reading Shinji and Warhammer 40k. My mind is perverted by epicism of ridiculous levels. Probably actually sounds so ludicrous you can't stand it but who knows? Maybe you'll enjoy.

Hope this is something along the lines of what you all were expecting. Come on… it's not as if you thought someone _else_ was the emperor of china did you? Heh heh. So… I'd like to know how much you enjoy, disbelieve, hate, or love this little fic I've created and corrupted. Drop a review, if you wish… or even if ya don't?

As always, credit to Ryo-Wolf who gave the idea, and Ozz who is my writing ping pong board.

Death to the Musk. The Empress of the Sky has come. Kudos from florida for that is where I am at writing this! Yay Disney! And finally…

**Please Review!**

**Till Next!**

**MB**


	3. Lick Your Wounds

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Two  
Lick Your Wounds**

_And they called her 'Ruby.' 'Fire.' A multitude of other names signifying her shimmering red hair. Slowly word spread throughout the camps of a slave who defied her masters at every turn. A whore whose masters gnashed their teeth at her defiance. A captive taken by the prince himself. _

_None could tame her. None could. Pain? Slowly, pain became as nothing to her. The early days were the only days I remember seeing her in pain. I admit, I slowly began to fear her. Sometimes she seemed part mad, her cackling glee at her own mind's fantasies._

_I indulged her plots. Fanatical schemes of a child who thought she was better than the hundreds, thousands of others before her who had tried and failed. She would never escape, anyway. Why not? Probably better to die trying for one as beautiful as her, than to live here, under their lustful eyes. _

_But as her ambitions grew, slowly they began to inject a knot of hope into my heart. Slowly… ever so slowly, she began to make me remember who I was. Make me remember my _pride! _Others, too, found themselves swayed by her unnerving resolve. _

_And her jailors began to even fear their job of tormenting her. Her rapes slowed and only the bravest, one of the princes himself, still had it in themselves to lay with her. _

_All were seeds for the terror she would lay to them later. The rebellion had begun before they had even started their war.

* * *

_

_

* * *

_

Chell's hands hurt. She had whacked the girl over the head with one of the iron food bowls that had collected up over time in her cell. When that had only partially stunned the girl, she repeated the process again three more times before the small red-head actually fell unconscious, completely. Chell felt the slightest glimmer of betrayal to the girl… She well remembered her own cries for vengeance. Being denied them would hurt… but far less so than the pain she would surely receive if she raised the ire of her jailors.

With any luck, Borage wouldn't keep his appointment with her tomorrow. For the girl's sake, and for her own. Perhaps one of the kinder guards would be content to simply rape her for a few hours.

That was usually enough to scare witless, pride filled girls like this one into a shocked horror. That would be best for a girl like this. Silence would be the _only_ way for her to remain hidden. Otherwise, her beauty would lead her to the wrong side of the flageild.

If she lived that, _then_ she would have nothing to worry about… the sickening things marred flesh so much that no man would ever want to touch her again. Added to that, the Musk seemed to think the women sentenced to it were cursed for some reason…

Honestly, Chell was unbelievably surprised that the girl had been able to even summon any emotion but horror after… after _Borage_ had laid his hands to her. _'Poor girl's insides must be screaming…'_ Chell thought, dismally.

Chell, crawled over to the girl again and began to clean her with the only tool she had available. Her ribs, now a bit less bloody and fleshy, seemed to be among her lightest damages. Her breasts, though… god the girl must be crying in her sleep! They weren't… _too_ bloody. But Chell well knew the touch of Borage's hand. The horns on his knuckles curved outward to cut into any sort of flesh he laid his fingers to. And of course, his sick fascination with twisting…

Even marred with bruises and stained red, they still looked beautiful.

After about half an hour or so, Chell thought the girl was as clean as she could get, when a sound resonated throughout the room. The sound of the cell's opening.

She shivered, before a figure loomed over her cell on the opposite side.

It stood there for a moment, illuminated only slightly by the dim light leaking in through the crack in the wall two cells down. Suddenly, a light blared in the figure's hands, and Chell sighed in relief.

Gimmer. Under the eye of his superiors, he was just as brutal as any of the guards… but without their eyes, he became a source of balms and ointments. Food for those who needed it. Most of the time anyway… It was Gimmer, who risked his life, and often, to keep the prisoners of this cell block alive. Most of the time…

Either that, or he was ordered to… To make the prisoners think there was a chance. To make them think there was… hope? Hah. Chell had long given up on thought of escape. One hundred and thirty escape attempts, excluding the plain stupid 'break-for-it-when-the-gate-opens' that she'd tried during her early days... Seventy nine of those ended with at least one death… None were successful. Each more painful than the last. None even managed to get her out of the camp, let alone the city.

She had _long_ since given up.

"Is za garl aw'roit?" He breathed, his weak language and terrible breath spiking into the cell.

"Y-yes. She will live." Chell replied weakly. It was unlikely that he would be here to lay with her when the girl was next to death beside them. Much more likely that he was here to apply a tincture or two to the girl's wounds.

The man was dirty, and had lost more teeth than he still had, and those that remained were yellowed long beyond repair. His breath stunk of raw meat and the jerkin and pants he always wore were little better. Black hair, slicked with grease and a feral growl about him like that of a dog at times, signifying the blood he had been breed from, he looked like one of the most evil beings here.

But he wasn't.

He had a gentle touch. No others did… No others did. Women were their slaves. Their toys. The things they used to create sons. Theirs to torture or please as they wished.

It made her feel guilt for how she'd once treated men, back at her own home. Long ago she had sworn to never treat others as she was treated here. Not ever. Never again. She would probably never be welcome among the amazons. But that didn't matter. Surely somewhere, there was a society where men and women could live… as equals? At least come close?

It didn't matter. Such a place did not exist. Not for her.

"At's good. 'Ere. 'is'll help… oh… Za prince 'ad you clean 'er aw'redy. Sorry, Cud'n't get 'ere faster..." He trailed with a depressed stare.

Chell was suddenly self-conscious. Blood still dribbled down her cheeks, and she probably looked like some sick blood hound. Her rear, covered only by the small loincloth they allowed her still bled freely from where Borage's horned gauntlets had cut into her.

Wiping her face, Chell gave a murmured, "That's alright," as she took the proffered wooden cup. Inside it was a pale green pasty substance that Chell well recognized. Many times she'd used the stuff. It burned like hell, but it worked. It could probably stop a severed limb from bleeding.

"Is you gon'sta be okay? You're bleedin… Mabye use that on yous'self? Za garl looks aw'roit." He said, with a leer towards her breasts.

Chell couldn't help but notice his lusty stare as it slowly trailed down to her rear, but there was nothing she could do about it, anyway. It wasn't Gimmer's way, to take her while she was in pain. Honestly, she almost wished he would. It would distract her from the terror Borage had instilled in her. And Gimmer was more than capable of making it feel good enough for her to forget her own wounds.

"Thank you…" She murmured in reply, as she took a small bit of the paste and rubbed it over her wounds, wincing at the sting. She couldn't take much. He would grow angry if she did. She didn't want to anyway. The right amount was truly all that was needed. After dabbing a bit on the wounds of the red-haired girl she handed the cup back to Gimmer.

"Ope' the new garl is a good one. Don' wanna be givun her all moi stash, ya see. Lots ta help! Lots ta help!" He said with a cheery grin before he left clinking slowly, his limp making loud bangs on the concrete floor.

Chell sighed. She turned her eyes to look over the girl who was apparently now her new roommate. Slowly, she hobbled over to the straw bed she was given and lay down on her side and gave the girl a curious consideration.

'_Eight…?'_ She thought, chagrinned at the notion. _'Why in the world do you have _eight_ manacles, little one? You are but a babe…' _

Almost depressed, she gave a hard stare to the single manacle on her wrist. Clail, she'd named it. During the endless hours of loneliness spent in her cell throughout the winters when they didn't force the prisoners to work, she'd had no one else to talk to. So her mind had come up with her own friends. She well knew that it was a thing of madness that she was doing… But what did that matter? If the musk were a bit spooked by her, all the better! So for years she'd talked to the thing. Her bar. Her constant. Her true prison. Without this damn manacle, the cell would be no bar to her fury. The thing had been around her wrist for so long, she could barely remember a time when it hadn't been there.

She had once been one of the greatest of the village. Outclassed only by the potential of her own daughter. And now she lay here, held down by a single metal shackle. The only company she had in this lonely cell.

Once, it even spoke back to her! But it wouldn't do it anymore… Stupid manacle.

"Uhhnnn…"

Chell's eyes snapped back to the red-haired girl. She rolled slightly around, in a dreary wake up ritual. "Ahhhck!" She gave a short, the pain of her injuries waking her up.

Chell found herself embarrassed. She'd just licked this girl all over. What if she asked how she had been cleaned? Or worse… what if she screamed again?

She couldn't scream again. She wouldn't _let_ her scream again! Or Borage would…. would…

* * *

Ranma found herself in pain from the moment she awoke. She was cold, especially her backside, lying on the stone, and a few pieces of straw that had been strewn across the floor. She felt… wet… sticky in all the wrong ways, but the pain was less than it had been.

Memory slowly came back to her. Memory of the iron dish slamming her in the face. Once. Twice, and darkness after that. Memory of her anger. Anger. It wasn't a useful emotion, and through her pain, she knew that. The knowledge did little to quell her hatred.

"_Boraage…"_ She hissed, her voice throaty and low.

"P-Please… don't scream again. P-please!" A voice begged. The same voice. Ranma's eye turned, and her neck and back moaned with the effort. Sage, milky white green hair greeted her, long and beautiful. The girl was a vision in her own right, and Ranma saw Xian Pu in her face.

"You… You hit me." She breathed, the anger seeping a bit out of her voice. The girl was a pale imitation of Xian Pu at best. Cold. Naked save for a thin loincloth. Bruised everywhere, and thin. _So thin, _to look as a starved nomad.

Ranma's eyes gazed into Chell's and she found only cold dread there. Ranma felt her tongue soften, and her eyes as well.

"Who are you? Ack!" Ranma exclaimed as she tried to push herself up, only to fall back with a hollow thud against the stone slab tiles.

Her eyes found the ceiling. Cobwebs barely discernable in the dark, glowed by refracted light from somewhere beyond the bars, illuminated a medieval dungeon, like something from a horror movie. A small hole resided in the corner of the room opposite the strange woman and the bed of decade-old-straw on which she slept.

'_What do they think we are…?' _Ranma's mind demanded angrily. The place itself had the feel of desolation, decay, and the smell of waste.

"I… am S-sage!" She replied.

'_Too frightened. Too afraid. It's like she's a mouse and I'm a cat. And I'm the one who can barely move!' _Ranma thought sadly, her anger growing ever stronger.

The word struck her and slowly an idea began to form. Cat. The neko-ken. A malicious grin formed on her face at the thought of it, but that wouldn't work. She'd need a cat.

As her mind grew fully awakened, she began to plan. To scrutinize _everything. _She would escape this dungeon. She would escape, and she would lay waste to Borage. Without these manacles, Borage would be as a candle next to the bonfire of her wrath.

The doors had locks that could be opened with the proper use of the 'Iron Cloth' technique used on a few bits of hair. A Moko Takabisha would likely not be strong enough to break the wall between this cell and the next lest it bring down the ceiling on her. Her ribs burned like hell! The small torch lighting the hallway, far further away from the sparse bit of moonlight that served to light the cell she lay in, had a point on the end of the handle that could easily be driven through a guard's neck. Didn't even need _ki_ for that one. Her ribs burned, damnit! The iron plates, four of them lying on the ground, meant that this place probably had less prisoners than she had originally thought if they could spare that many bowls.

"God damn, that hurts!" She screamed, clutching vainly at the slices down her ribs.

"Shh! Shhh!" The woman beckoned, with an even stronger hint of urgency. "P-please! They'll h-hear!"

Ranma wanted to protest; she wanted to boast that their torture meant nothing to her! But the prospect of more pain did not sit well with her aching body. Anything she survived would only make her stronger, but there was no sense in provoking more torture. Not when they had all the advantages.

But they wouldn't. Soon.

Full battle mode, her mind found every nook. Every possible weak spot in the wall of this small jail. She searched her own body. The area between her legs seemed to scream. Her ribs, blaring with the pain of the cuts parallel between them, added to the feel of her mauled breasts were the only things that distracted her from the pain left of her rape.

Her buttocks, covered with the handiwork of Borage's horned gauntlets, the cuts like welts from stinging whips, barely registered in her mind, even though she knew any of them could be fatal. How the hell was she _alive? _Ranma couldn't help the shiver that ran through her as she recalled…

Bile rose in her throat. She couldn't think about it. Couldn't…

_How does it feel little Ruby? Little virgin Fire! How much blood do you'll think you can lose? Look at—! No, you wench! Don't turn your eyes! Look at it! Don't I feel good?_

Ignoring the pain, Ranma rolled over onto her stomach and crawled to the hole in the corner of the room. Gagging at the stench, she vomited into it, and only felt worse at the sound of sickening splatters that echoed back up from below.

"Is... young one, alright…?" Sage asked, in broken Japanese that reminded Ranma of Xian Pu even more than her hair.

Ranma could not hear her. Try as she might, the memories would not leave her. Try as she might…

_Very simple, little Ruby. Very simple. It'll all stop hurting. All your pains will go away. Every… last one… Just say one little word… _

That smile. That sickening snigger of a grin. The laugh on his face as he held out a brown leather collar. She hated him! _Hated him!_

She rolled onto her back with a wince, and rubbed her breasts, as if to wipe away the memory of hanging by that… _thing._ The feel of him suckling them, as she hung, staring into ever-growing pools of her own blood. The feel of his hands touching her. Of… him… Her mind itself wretched at her own worst nightmare, given form, now as memory.

_Just call me 'master.' _

"I'd rather die." She hissed.

As she had then.

Slowly, Ranma brought herself out of the memory. Before the worst of it rose again in her mind. Before she began to despair. The utter helplessness. The feel of burning, pulling at every last drop of her ki, only to have nothing appear. No power to flow into her bones. Like an atom bomb, exploding within an impenetrable bubble. She felt it there… a roiling sea of power, that she could touch, but not use! Feel, but not attack!

Why? How could these manacles…?

Ranma suddenly felt a cool hand on her forehead. Without warning, another fluttered in behind the back of her head and lifted it. Slowly, Ranma felt her head laid down on something soft, and her muscles _oozed_ at the warmth that seeped from the lap her head now rested in. The hands, gentle as a feather, began to rub at her forehead. Sooth her. Calm her.

Pain still laced through her, but she was no stranger to pain. And despite everything… she knew she had felt worse. It was the _memories_ that hurt. It was the _memories_ that gave her rage.

"Young one is strong." Sage said, and Ranma couldn't help but sink into her words. She knew she couldn't have stopped the woman even had she wanted to. She'd never felt so weak in her life. Yet still she was strong.

"Lay… be still. Pain… pain go away. Pain is less, yes? Here. Be still." The woman's words were coos that would have filled Ranma with lethargy, if the pain of her nightmares… her memories… didn't hover over her now.

Ranma's eyes fell upon the grim vision of pale light illuminating the breasts above her. Attractive as she was, Ranma couldn't summon an ounce of lust. She didn't know if she ever would again. How could any woman find something like… that… enjoyable…? Her legs still burned. How could she, as a man, ever wish upon a woman she loved, something anything close to…?

She… couldn't. Not ever. Not…

Not ever.

"Is okay…" Sage said. "Is alright. N-no feel bad. Pain only last… little while. Okay… okay to cry here."

Ranma protested with a shake of her head. It wasn't okay to cry. It was _never_ okay to cry. Here. Here was a place where vengeance was made. A reckoning was coming.

"I won't." She said. It was shaky. But the words were true. In them, Ranma found her hope. Ranma found her confidence and her vow. "I won't cry. I won't beg. I won't give up… I'll destroy this place. Or I'll die trying…"

Chell watched the girl below her, fire and revenge dancing in her eyes. "Of… course you will, child."

As she stroked the girl's fiery mane of hair, she was not surprised to find no tears on the girl's face. How long would her spirit last before it was invariably crushed into nothing more than a puppet? How long?

Inside, she wept.

* * *

Three days had passed since Herb had brought Ranma here, and he was still trying to shrug off the guilt of what he had done. It was custom. It was tradition, practically a ritual. Opponents… women rather, who had fallen in battle but not died, were made into the city's workforce and the mothers of new sons, for those who were not high ranked enough to use the blessed waters of Jusenkyo. Men were killed.

So Herb had been given two choices… treat her as a woman, or as a man.

If Ranma knew the way he'd chosen, it would probably add another note of anger to the power of her screams. But had he not been merciful? He hadn't killed her…

'_She saved your life, you bastard.' _His conscience bullied him. _'And this is how you repay her? You are a fiend…' _

He tried to justify what he'd done. The war was coming. His father had been preparing for almost a decade for the Musk's grand rise and return to power. All of China would be theirs. And it would begin soon. A mere five or six months until the armies were truly ready to storm all of China…

An enemy like Ranma was _not_ someone they wanted in the way. No…

Despite his justification, guilt plagued him. That had been the first time he'd ever been in a situation that required the use of that particular law. And he'd always hated the slave camps. Hated torture. Added to the fact that he was a mere splash of water away from the exact same situation he had put Ranma into.

Oh yes. Guilt plagued at his soul. "Ranma…"

"Little Herb. Something the matter?" Came a lofty tenor voice. Herb couldn't help but scowl, as he jerked his head down the hallway.

Ahead of him stood a man, taller than he, with long wavy black hair that billowed about his shoulders, even down through the hooded cowl that covered his head. A black vest and under shirt, trimmed with gold linings, along with a pair of pants of the same cut adorned him. The man had a grin on his face that Herb had never seen wiped off it. A perpetual grin that could easily turn from kind, almost comely, to sadistic in a second.

"Older Brother." Herb replied with a stiff nod, fingering one of the blue tufts of hair that hung down to his chest idly.

"What are you doing down here in the dungeons, Herby? Do you wish to take one of the prisoners? That girl you brought in? Father wouldn't like that…" He toned, his voice, scented sweet, had the feel of poisoned cherries to Herb's ears. The man ended his words in a hiss, lightly showing his two pronged tongue, symbolizing his own bloodline. Part Dragon, Part snake.

He disgusted Herb. The only saving grace was that the man usually kept himself completely clothed, gloves and boots and hood, hiding his hideous, scale-like pale skin. And also… usually kept his… vices… away from Herb.

Herb did not respond to the question, preferring instead to turn back to the wall of the dank room, and gaze in through one of the peep holes at Ranma again. She lay, sleeping, her head resting on that green-haired-woman's legs.

He shivered with the effect her beauty had on him, even damaged as she now was, and turned back to his brother. "I don't see why that is any business of yours, Marjoram. Go play your mind games somewhere else."

"Oh, little bother! I'm hurt! Why would you ever think I would play games with you? I was just being brotherly!" The man was _not _hurt. He was laughing.

"Leave me, before I get angry." Herb boomed lowly. He had long since been the stronger between himself and Marjoram, but he was still wary. His older brother was known for being sly, and he did not doubt the other man could easily slip him a poison or some other way of cheating to disable him, if the man wished. He'd always resented his weak breeding and developed his taste for malice and trickery to compensate.

The man only smiled and gave a hiss again. "If you insist." He barked a laugh as he walked away. A few meters down the hall he stopped and cracked his long fingers. "Oh… and when Borage fails to break that girl with his usual methods, I'll enjoy taking her sanity from her. She is… _most exquisite. _Wouldn't you agree? Your first venture among the humans and you bring us a _lioness! _I am _most impressed, _little brother."

'_Get her OUT of this! You'd be _dead_ without her! You hear me!? DEAD!' _Herb's conscience screamed in all its fury. Long educated in schooling his features, Herb only let the slightest hint of his inner turmoil show, in the form of a cold, half-glare.

Marjoram laughed jovially and continued on. Turning a final time, Marjoram gave a laugh. "Oh and little brother…? Do watch your step."

Herb took a single step towards Marjoram in anger… and cool water washed over him triggering his curse.

Marjoram only smiled as he walked away.

Dripping wet, Herb did not follow. But nor did he turn back to look into the cell's peep hole until he was sure the other man was gone.

* * *

A small light remained lit deep within the compounds of an ancient giant structure deep in the midst of the great mountains somewhere north of the Great Wall. A single man stood awake deep in the dead hours of the night, his long beard and moustache illuminated harshly by firelight dancing across his aged features.

He considered himself a very smart man. A genius even, in his own field. A military man from birth as his father before him had been, he had always been considered a bit… different.

And he should be. He _was_ different.

The others couldn't hear the wind. The others couldn't hear the sounds of the earth screaming in agony at the blood that would surely soak its grounds in the coming years.

But he could.

It hadn't taken long for him to realize the place to which he had been led was a tomb. He'd always been afraid of tombs and crypts and the like, but this was the kind of thing he would give his life for. The kind of thing he would face his fears for, no matter how afraid.

So he preferred to think of the great stone sarcophagi that literally littered this untouched tomb, as boxes instead of the coffins they were. Each contained skeletons, some holding more than one, that had been dead longer than any on this earth had lived. And other things. Ornaments jewels. All sorts of different trinkets.

Diligently he sat, opening the 'boxes' one by one and glancing across the great room to and fro. There was nothing that could be done. No matter what, the nation that his fathers, and his fathers' fathers, had grown and flourished under would fall. He wished he knew of a single man who would believe him… but no. He'd learned long ago, that if he spoke the truth of the patterns and shapes he saw forming on the wind, people would believe him mad.

But it didn't matter. He had to do _something!_ And so he searched. He searched relentlessly for the object that brimmed on every gust of air he could see. The wind guiding his long walk away from the military facilities, and great decorated halls of Beijing. He was a man of his country and he would _find_ the one thing that could save his people! He would or he would die trying.

And that was what had led him here… deep within these snow covered mountains where ruins quivered from the harsh attacks of long winters.

The boxes, untouched for untold centuries, lay in rows endlessly stretching down a mile long corridor, each with artifacts, and each priceless beyond measure. A gleaming golden chalice, surely worth millions, and it only one of an entire set! A shining crown, adorning the shape of a long dead skeleton whose coat would be worth more than anything the man yet owned. A belt crafted of metal whose forgery had been long lost to time. A sword of the same gleaming material.

Hundreds of objects and trinkets and weapons and…

…and it was all trash. Every bit of it.

Another box.

Trash.

Hours passed. Endless hours of unearthing skeletons that crumbled to dust with a touch.

Another box. Eww… Ugly skeleton in that one.

Jewels… bah. Trash.

Another box.

Useless junk.

Another box.

Hah! Wine! Now THAT was worth something! How long must it have aged!?

Anoth—!

And there it was. Lying there, glistening in the light of his small torch lay the object he sought. Seemingly crafted of marble, or perhaps some other, less lustrous metal, it looked quite ugly. Simple, vaguely greenish in color, it had no valves or holes to indicate it was anything more than a decoration.

But he knew it, true.

As the man lifted the ugly instrument from the cushioned bottom of the box, out of the once hard iron grip of another skeleton, finally he knew without doubt that his dream would come true. He traced the fragile object with his hands, as delicate as he would a new-born babe. His fingers found the ornate engraving etched with expert care into the side of the horn.

Old words, far too old to be understood by any common tongue, shifted and meshed together to form symbols that the man could read. His fear and excitement grew.

'_The sky sings to my melody.'_

The Ѐlan Cornet was now in his hands.

Instantly, the shapes on the wind twisted and changed. The wind itself took off, beyond the crypt. Away! Away! The images all grew and bolstered, each flowing along away from him. Away. And he had to follow.

New images now greeted him. Images of a way to save the people of his China. Of a way…

A girl, her hair glistening red, dressed in ornate robes of silver blue and a blaring red to match even her hair, stood back to back with a man who looked very similar. Taller, his hair black as night, adorned in the same genderless robes.

Twin diadem's rested on their heads. Both the crown of the emperor from ages long past.

In the girl's hands rested the Ѐlan Cornet. In the man's, a scepter.

His mission already certain in his mind, he stood and began to walk out of the tomb.

Pausing for a moment, just before leaving, he turned. And began gathering as many of the priceless jewels as he could fit in his pockets.

The wind grew irritated.

* * *

"What… what is your story?" Ranma asked slowly, so she was sure the Chinese woman could understand. The pain was fading to only dull throbs now. She had always been a fast healer. Her eyes were closed in a dismal effort to conserve the girl's dignity, but it was clear that she didn't care.

Her lap felt warm on the back of her neck. She couldn't tell if blood still dribbled there but her neck had been spared much of the tortures other parts of her body had felt. They didn't want to permanently damage her it seemed, though they hadn't minded giving her one long slice across the back of it.

"S-story? No story. I serve m-master. Young one needs sleep…" The woman trailed off, running her hands gently through Ranma's hair, while idly scratching at the leather collar around her neck.

The red-head felt disgust at the woman's piteous frailty, but her hands felt _soo_ good… Like… like her mother did… a long time ago. The green-haired woman's hands running softly through her hair brought back memories long forgotten. Memories that she now cherished, brought to the forefront of her mind as a wall to block out the thought of what Borage had done.

"No good deed… goes unpunished…" She coughed weakly.

Suddenly, Ranma's comfortable pillow became tense and harsh on her neck. Sage's bare legs filled with goosebumps but Ranma could do nothing about that. The sound of a gate opening.

Then… crying.

"P-please… i-it's dark in there! I don—Ack!" The voice of a young Japanese girl, sounding very nearly Ranma's age, echoed through the darkness, cut off by the sound of a loud slap on bare flesh.

Ranma's own bottom stung at the sound, but the cool of the stone floor soothed it.

"Not another word…" Came a harsh, low voice. "If you know what's good for you, you'll shut up… the prince hears ya, and what you just felt might as well be pinpricks next to what he'll do."

The sound of boots echoed through the dim cells, and a sob, clenched as tightly as it could be, reached her ears too.

"Ugh… pathetic… Stupid kids… why would those two idiots bring back such a weak girl? We should just kill her now, Galm." A lighter voice, filled with much more anger and excitement bled around, echoed only by the young girl's whimper. Ranma immediately pictured a pig, for if a pig had a human tongue, this is surely the sound it would make.

"Now now, Veter." The low voice, surely Galm, returned, punctuating his words with another sharp slap and an barely suppressed "Yi!" along with a chuckle. "She may be weak but it's nice to have such a good little girl around. No fight in-er' but ya can tell she wants too. Don't even need a manacle! Such easy upkeep… And look at er breasts! Ain't they beauties? Nah… I don't think Lime did too bad of a job for his first time out in the world… She'll be fun right up till she dies. Won't you Tua?"

Silence returned his question and a bit of anger injected into his tone. "_Tua…_"

"Yes Master!" Came another sob. "Yes! I will!"

The man chuckled again. "Goood…" He moaned sensually. The girl gave a loud 'eep!' but Ranma had no idea why. Anger burned in her anew. This dungeon… this place… this entire _people_ would be wiped from the face of the earth. She swore it.

'_Galm and Veter. You are next on my list. Galm and Veter.' _Ranma mentally etched the two names into her mind as the sound of footsteps came ever closer.

Just before reaching the cell Ranma laid in, the footsteps stopped.

"This one will do." Came Veter's high, nasal voice. "No one in here… she should be fine on her ow— whoa!"

Ranma shivered. Veter's voice shot off in rapid Mandarin that Ranma could not understand. He was just as nasal and raspy, but when speaking his own language, he seemed at least a bit more competent. Ranma cursed at that. She'd hoped these two were idiots. If they were her guards, well… she could have their throats slit and be gone from this place in a day.

A strong pain blared up from between her legs. Maybe two days…

But it seemed that was not so anyway. These two were torturers. Not guards.

The sound of a gate opening. A thud echoed throughout the room, the sound of a body being dropped onto the hard stone floor, and weeping continued.

"No… no you can't touch her. The prince brought her in himself…" Galm replied lowly. More Mandarin from Galm, but Ranma already knew they were talking about her. But she could do _nothing. _She was beginning to hate helplessness.

"No. Veter, _Borage _had her..." The low-voiced man said with emphasis.

Veter shivered audibly. "Heh… well, then it won't be long before we can have her at least. She won't be as pretty… but still… the prince does break his new toys so quickly…"

Galm barked a comical laugh. "Right you are, my friend. But for now, let us enjoy what we've been given eh? Tua. Get over here… if you please us, we won't break another finger… okay?"

A sob.

The ruffling of metal armor and cloth.

"_Tua! NOW!"_

The sound of someone scampering on stone.

One more sob.

A slurping noise.

"Ahhh… good girl…" Came a moan from Galm's dark voice.

A knot of guilt wedged in Ranma's throat. Weakly... so weakly… she covered her ears to block out the sounds. But nothing could keep down the memories.

* * *

* * *

Sometime later, Ranma awoke, her eyes groggily adjusting to the abnormally dim light surrounding her. She felt hundreds of times better… and still many more times worse for her own weakness.

'_There was nothing I could do.' _She told herself dismally. _'Nothing I could have done to stop that girl from… from…' _

A lie. A bold faced lie. She could have taken it upon herself. The two bastards had obviously both lusted for her. And was she _not_ a martial artist? She could have… said something… anything. And those two would have gladly come to her cell and ignored the other girl.

But she didn't want them to touch her. She didn't want… she…

She was _afraid… _

Trying to console herself, she knew that she had been in far more pain than the girl. She knew, had she given rise to their anger, and tempted them to come take her, she probably would have died.

That did nothing to ease her guilt. Nothing.

Rising, she found that she now lay on the bed of straw, while Sage had pulled a bit of the itchy stuff away from her to craft a makeshift pillow; the woman laid on the hard stone as if it were natural.

Ranma smelled herself and winced. She reeked, and there was evidence that she had been sleeping for quite some time. Her wounds were healing, pain having been whittled down to a meager throb from mostly everywhere. Her ki was denied her by the bracer-like metal rings binding her wrists and ankles, but her body still seemed more than able to use it for healing.

Her breasts and her sex still throbbed in pain and she wished she had something to cloth herself with, but the slices down her ribs were now covered in scabs and the wound on the back of her neck appeared to now be a mere scar.

Weeks she might have slept. Or it could have been less than a day. Her rate of healing scared even herself sometimes. She could never be sure.

Burdened by her guilt, she buried herself back into the straw, blanketing herself with it, even more than she already had. But it didn't help… nothing would. Nothing except…

"Tua…?" She murmured, groggily, her eyes still tired from sleep.

No answer.

"Tua… are you… there?" She asked, finding her voice unusually throaty.

"My name is Aktaya…" The girl's voice jabbed weakly from the other side. "Not… Not Tua."

Ranma sat up, wincing only slightly, and leaned her back against the icy cold of the stone wall, the sound echoed by the clinking of the two metal manacles on each of her limbs. "I'm sorry…"

Silence echoed throughout the border between the two cells for a time. If others rested in the cells opposite Ranma or Aktaya, or further down the hallway, they were not making any sounds.

"What is your name…? Your real name. Before coming here…?" The girl said, her voice brightening only a little.

"Ran— er… Ranma…" Ranma coughed out, finding the ability to speak coming harshly through her dried lips. Her stomach grumbled and she suddenly realized she was very hungry and even more thirsty. Even so, she disregarded it, her guilt giving her strength just as her anger had. "Are you alright…?"

"I'm alright…" She replied. "Compared to you anyway…"

"Me…?" Ranma asked. "How do you know what…?"

"You were crying in your sleep. Sage told me—!"

"I wasn't crying." Ranma barked, her pride singed. "I don't cry."

The girl was silent for a moment, but she decided not to press the issue. Ranma was glad for that. "I… S-sage… wanted me to stop bawling. So she… told me what they'd done to you." The girl continued on.

"Oh…" Ranma replied.

Silence once again.

"You are… Japanese. Where… what happened? How did you get here, I mean?" Ranma asked, trying to change the subject. Though this one was probably no better, she wanted the girl to talk.

"I… I don't really remember. I was watching... I was with my boyfriend. Then there were these… two men. I thought they were just… I don't know… idiots. They started screaming about… breasts! As if they'd never seen a woman before! The next thing I knew I woke up hanging over one of their shoulders…" She spoke as if trying to believe it herself, but she didn't know if she could.

"Lime and Mint…" Ranma sighed, her guilt multiplying. She, too, had thought the two of them were simply idiots. And they were… but they were not Kuno. Their intentions were clearly much more malicious. From the way they acted though… they probably didn't even know what happened here.

"I… I'm sorry. I saved the life of the ones who brought you here. If I… hadn't done that, neither of us would be here. I'm sorry."

Silence again.

"You're her aren't you?" Aktaya asked suddenly. "You're the red-haired girl they were carrying with me when we first arrived here…"

Ranma stood to her feet. Only a bit wobbly. Pain jerked through her but she could handle it. "Probably." She answered.

She didn't want to talk to the girl anymore. Not now. Not while knowing it was _her_ fault the other girl was even here. She had to concentrate. First, she had to find a way to get these manacles off of her arms.

Scanning them, they were seamless rings of steel, wrapped around her wrists and ankles far to tightly to ever be slid over her hand. There was no way to unlatch the things, and Ranma was clueless as to how they had gotten them on her in the first place. Metallic in color, she supposed they would have been beautiful for a dancer or gypsy to wear. But she wanted them off… so she breathed. Breathed.

Breathed.

Her ki burbled beneath her skin, and the manacles themselves tensed, locking harder against her bare wrists and ankles. More ki. She summoned more, and the things began to rattle and vibrate on her arms. More. Ever more!

She forced it all heavily into her arms, and then found the barriers in her legs grow strong enough to overpower her. Compensating, she pushed ki down to her ankles, and the manacles on her wrists seemed to grow in power. The things pressed down as if they were each separate layers earth, letting her ki roil beneath her skin, each adding another layer of pressure to the underground river that was her ki streams.

But breaking through the surface seemed impossible. She pushed, and each manacle compensated for the weakness of the others. No… the only way free would be to break them all at once… She needed more ki. She needed more… more power.

Until then…

Wait…

Her eye passed over it, but her ki found it. A small crack. So small, but it was there in one of the metal rings on her right wrist. She pushed. Nothing gave. She pushed harder… Nothing. Harder still… and she felt it. The tiniest bit of ki… it was like pushing wet cement through a straw.

Gasping for breath, Ranma let go of her ki. The crack in the manacle seemed to mock her. It was useless. The damn things weren't made to break. It wasn't breaking at all! It was just… not fighting back. They couldn't be over powered because they only blocked a certain amount of ki each… it was as if they had a mind of their own! Whenever too much pressure was placed on one, the others seemed to back it up and pressed down, battering her into submission.

She grew frustrated.

Again she tried, straining her ki for every last drop.

Again nothing.

Again.

Again.

Again!

"Agggh!" She screamed in anger. "Damn things; why won't you break?"

"Good to see you're feeling so well... little Ruby." Came a low voice that she knew well. Ranma couldn't help the involuntary flinch. Fear took her, but anger was stronger.

It always would be.

"_Borage…_" She hissed. Her eyes glowed and her ki trembled with power.

"Master Borage." He returned, humor in his voice, as he opened the gate to her cell.

Ranma was suddenly thankful that Sage was sleeping peacefully on the floor, blissfully unaware of Borage's presence. Lightly, she fell into a fighting stance. She could not win… not without her ki. The ability to even use it.

But he would not take her anywhere without _scars_ to prove it.

In a flash, he was standing in front of her, but Ranma was faster. Darting around the room to the other wall, she avoided the sharp grab of his horned gauntlets and aimed a bone-shattering kick for his face.

It impacted the man's grey, bald head with little more than a tap. The man turned lazily to her and grinned, now chuckling at her. She stood right in front of the cell's gate. The door was wide open.

She could not go anywhere, and he knew it. He was playing with her. She growled.

"Go on! A good chase sounds fun… I like women who play hard to get… Ruby." Playing with her indeed. He was underestimating her. Idiot.

Ranma disappeared.

For a moment, Borage was shocked. Then, he howled.

Ranma lay on her back between the bolder-like man's legs, her fist flying at speeds the human eye could barely see. Even without her ki, she was one of the greatest martial artists that existed. She would make this man pay. She would _Kill _him when she had her true strength back.

Without warning his metal clad boot slammed into her stomach, stopping the torrent of blows aimed for the rhino's crotch.

Breathing heavily, the man wheezed.

Ranma hacked. Her stomach barely holding against the heaving man's boot. Weakly, she tried to push it off her stomach. Tried to punch again. She couldn't though.

"Y-You… Hah hah! What a prize you will be! The honor I will receive when I tell father I broke one such as _you! _Hah hah!" Borage gasped, through butchered breaths.

Ranma couldn't speak, her stomach reaming. But she was not done. Not yet. Pain was nothing. Forget pain. Push pain away and you could not lose. She could not lose! She _could not lose!_

Her foot slammed up from below, bashing the man once again. Her bare feet, clanging like the sound of metal on metal against his armor, ramming the metal that was supposed to protect him straight into his crotch again.

He gasped and slumped over, one hand desperately clutching his surely agonizing genitals, while the other grabbed her ankle, above the rings.

"Little whore…" He wheezed. "Little bitch of a whore… You think yourself strong? You will _beg_ me to rape you again, after I'm done with you..."

His hand reached down, and grasped her throat. Ranma jerked as the horns cut into her neck, and he lifted her off the floor. She gasped again when his foot left her stomach, coughing. Her eyes never left his. Blue sterling eyes stared horror down into the black beads of her captor, and she spat in his face, even as she struggled to free herself from his enormous hand.

His other hand slowly left his crotch and he touched her inner thigh. "You just made your stay much… _much_ more painful, Ruby."

Slowly, he raised his gauntleted hand.

Ranma's fear tripled, but even then she held his gaze mentally preparing herself for what she knew was to come. As his finger touched her, the horn on the tip cutting deep into her flesh, she suppressed a cry, and held his gaze. His grin widened. Her breath leaving her from his hand tightly gripping her neck, her glare never faltered.

Not once.

**End Chapter Two**

**Author's Notes:** Okies… so this is getting quite sadistic. I'd move it to the mature section but it still has nothing more than 'implied' bad stuff.

So I've begun crafting my own badass Ranma-chan. Almost wanna give her a bigass lazer gun and let her go crazy, don'cha? I know I do. Damn fourth wall... Don't worry. This will start picking up soon. After a while, Ranma-locked-up, is gonna get boring pretty quick so next chapter is probably gonna start somewhere around a week or two later.

For those of you who are disappointed at the lack of futuristic segments? Well… eheh. Sorry. Not getting back to that until we actually catch up to it. I might throw a random futuristic chapter in there but honestly? You'll probably have to wait for quite some time to see Ranma the emperor again.

So as always, I hope you enjoyed. Many of you probably find me about four or five times more sickening now than before (though I doubt Tuisto's opinion has changed much ^_^v.) but what the hey, that doesn't mean the writing was bad. I hope.

As to the man and the Cornet? Well. Later. Later.

Special thanks to Lightspire for pointing out my inconsistencies. To everyone else who noted, sorry about Konatsu. That was an honest mistake but I ain't gonna change it now! Probably just throw in a backstory later on.

One final note. I blame the lack of proper page breaks in the last two chapters (and probably this one as well) entirely on ff(dot)net. I promise that _I _had them there. The site deigned them unworthy apparently. Who knew? So this time I loaded the horizontal rules with their own doubles just in case the first one didn't show.

Guess that's it! Hope you liked it. And as always…

**Please Review!**

**Till Next!**

**MB**


	4. Neverbent Knees

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Three  
Neverbent Knees**

_I'd thought the girl would surely break soon, early on. I kept on thinking that. She would break… of course she would. She wasn't invincible either… She came close. Once. Only that one time. After that… After that I never heard Her whimper, or cry, or curse again._

_After that, She gave up Her name. Her given name. Most new arrivals hated the damnable pet-names they were given. Hated them until they were so beaten they had no choice but to accept them. No choice. As I did._

_Not Her though. She did at first of course, but after… after the event that almost broke Her, She came up with an idea. Each time they spat the name they'd given Her, She swore to make them fear it. To make sure that one day, they would hear that degrading name, meant only to break Her spirit, and despair. For all their whips. For all their chains. For all their cruelties and tortures, they could not break this one! They could not break Her!_

_Ruby began Her crusade…_

_

* * *

_Ranma Saotome had long forgotten the meaning of time. Time spent awake was time spent fighting or in unending pain. Battling… struggling… doing everything she could to fight back against her captors… oh yes. She had long forgotten the meaning of time.

There was torture, and there was sleep. That was all. Torture and sleep.

Now she was only barely aware… blood flowed all over her, and she was thankful for something in her mind that was causing her entire body to feel numb.

Perhaps they'd struck an important nerve in her head? And now the pain just felt less?

No… Maybe she was dying. That was more likely… She couldn't be sure, though.

The man who carried her, tousled her, shifting her so she lay more comfortably for him, draped over his broad shoulder. She didn't know who he was, but she knew he was _not_ one of the few who felt pity for her. Those numbered less than a hand. And this man's fingers would not stop touching her...

She was thankful for the fact that Borage seemed to keep her exclusively for his own pleasure as far as raping went. The thought of more than one of her tormentors sexually abusing her made her want to sob, but Borage seemed to have taken her as a personal challenge. It was small thanks.

Very small thanks. She had one rapist… and an array of torturers too long to name. So many names of men she would kill someday… so many she had already forgotten, but she was ever defiant. She would not give an inch... not ever. Every one of those men had wiped her spit off their faces.

Now though, her eyes were dizzy and the floor seemed to be moving at hundreds of miles per hour. The shift of the man's boots seemed to daze her and she could hardly think. Blood was leaking over his shoulder from her privates but that was to be expected. It _always_ did…

The cool breeze, crafted by the wind made from the man's long steps, felt wonderful and stingingly cold at the same time, but she'd lost far too much blood to be able to appreciate it. Thrown like a sack over his shoulder, not for anywhere near the first time, nor likely the last, she had grown numb to a great many indecencies.

But still her anger and hatred burned. Day after day… hour after endless hour, nothing but her hatred kept her running. Hatred, and thoughts of home.

Her sleep was her only true haven, because whenever she was awake, she was fighting. When she was ever actually awake, meant she was usually at least half healed and that was more than enough for Borage to decide she was ready for another round of his… _attention_. And she showed no signs of weakness there. The fire of her spirit burned like a forest bathed in oil. She kicked and screamed and fought tooth and nail. Every time they tortured her she had to be bolted down. Every time Borage… raped her she had to be hung from the ceiling or he could not hold her still enough.

But in the realms of half and full unconsciousness, as she now resided in, it was almost impossible to summon the strength to fight back. To even care… death would be sweet bliss.

Almost impossible… Almost… but 'impossible' was a word that Ranma Saotome defined on a daily basis.

Slowly, she lifted her arm so as not to draw his attention. Bastard kept banging his thigh into her head. He was one of _them._ And she would kill them all. Fight them with every breath in her body. She knew he would probably laugh at her efforts but she couldn't let that stop her. Cautiously, she cocked her elbow… and slammed it into the guard's bare stomach. To her dazed satisfaction, the man doubled over, coughing as if a truck had run him through. Obviously _this_ guard had not gone through any form of the body training that had made most of these Musk so strong…

Arrogant idiot. That's what he got for thinking he could be anywhere near her and not expect to get… oh… she was falling…

Her head banged against the floor as she was dropped, but the pain was small. She barely felt it. Her mind had already been numbed. Her body, realizing that it would kill her to feel much more of her torture, was releasing the precious endorphins that prevented her from feeling what should be unbelievable torment.

Either that, or she really was dying.

She heard the man curse. He shouted… his angry eyes soon appeared in front of her face, but the words were dim to her…

The world was fading away. Dimmer. Dimmer.

Ranma didn't want to die. Not without… not without her revenge… a nameless death at the hands of this pitiful guard dropping her because he wasn't strong enough to take an elbow thrust was a weak way to go.

…She wanted to see them all again.

And… she was afraid to die.

'_Help me… Akane… Shampoo… Ryoga… Pop… Mousse… anyone…' _She begged restlessly in her mind, as she desperately fought unconsciousness. _'Mother… Help me... Please…' _

Her eyes closed…

…and opened again.

"Ruby... Ruby is waking!" Came elated words, from a face covered by long pale green hair.

Ranma stared up into the eyes of the woman who had been her healer most every time she'd fallen unconscious after her torture.

Which was almost _every _time.

"_Ruby! _Oh god, you're alive!" Aktaya's voice from a cell over filtered in through the strange dullness of her waking ears.

Pain… always pain, but it would have been _truly strange _for her to wake to anything _but_ excruciating pain. Honestly, if ever she woke, and felt _good… s_he would probably be terrified.

'_No, Ranma. Be strong… be steadfast. You'll escape. They'll come for you. Your family will come for you… and if they don't, you'll find a way… You are Ranma Saotome… You are the _best _there ever was_!' She told herself.

Strong words but they held less conviction by the day. Less… ever less.

"Don't call me that… weakling…" Ranma spat, not caring that it might hurt Aktaya's feelings too. She'd grown to hate Sage in the… few weeks? Months? Year? She had no idea how long she'd been here but she found quickly that Sage's servitude… her piteous groveling sickened Ranma to her very core. Maybe even worse than torture.

'_Don't let her scare you… Ranma… be strong! You won't become her! You… you won't.' _Her inner strength began to speak to her as if it were a living, breathing entity all its own.

It would be so easy… Almost too easy. Sage was never touched. Never raped. Barely even spoken to, though much more ever since Ranma had arrived; Ranma knew that Sage's cell had scarcely been opened for years before she had arrived.

The woman covered herself in mud… dirt… and… and things even more disgusting. Not many of the musk wanted to touch her. Only Borage ever approached her… probably because he had no sense of smell. Damn horn-nosed bastard. Gimmer too, but he was just as strange in his own lurky sort of way. The rest though…? They avoided her like plague. Sage was sick almost all of the time. Coughing and hacking and wheezing as if she had a plague. But none of these things disgusted Ranma as much as the sheer servitude in the older woman's voice.

Sage was not quite a pet in _every _sense… no. She was a coward. Ranma had seen cows less tame than her. Never did she call Ranma by her true name. Never did she give her own name. The name she'd once had. No. She was… She was Ranma's example of herself, after giving up. And she would _not_ become Sage. Not ever.

Gimmer… the salve bringer, as Ranma had named him, lay with her on occasion while Ranma lay right in the cell. Ranma had woken to their strangely passionate love making once and found herself vomiting not seconds later.

'_Master…! Oh… M-Mas… Oh..!' _

Ranma almost vomited again as the memory bubbled up in her mind. God… how could she live with herself…? Being a… a _bitch_ for these demons to lay their seed in!? HOW!?

Sickened and now thoroughly enraged by her own thoughts, Ranma wobbled up.

Aktaya was… better. Ranma could forgive her, her weakness. Ranma didn't know how long it had taken for the girl to give up her name, but she was not a martial artist. She had been a normal girl once. Obsessed with reading she said. But she had no strength to summon to fight off her own tortures. She was… weak. And she knew it.

During the time between arriving here, Ranma had found friendship unlike any she had ever had before with Aktaya. Whispered sweet nothings while the girl had cried. Words of hope, and dreams… Shared stories. Whenever Ranma was tortured lightly enough to not need… _cleaning…_ she ended up in the cell right across from Aktaya, and finally, she had been able to see the one she had grown so close to.

Midnight black hair, cut shorter than even Akane's, though Ranma was quite certain that had happened after she had arrived here, framed the freckle-filled face of a girl whose age fit perfectly with her looks. Buxom and beautiful, had Ranma been able to look at women with lust any longer without bile rising in her throat, she knew she would be. Much taller than her, though perhaps half an inch shorter than her male form, Aktaya's beauty was marred only by her bruises.

They were kind enough to her not to break her skin.

Ranma had never had a closer friend. She doubted she ever would.

And that was why Ranma had been glad when Aktaya had given in… but she would never forget the girl's name. One day Ranma would free her. She would. Someday.

Shakily placing her hands behind her, she pushed herself to her feet. Her wounds were scabbed over and her skin was clear of dried blood that she always found when she woke in her own cell. She shivered, disgusted by the sticky feeling that made her certain of just _how_ she'd been cleaned again. She'd rather have been left on her own.

"Sage is… sorry." The woman said sadly. "Sage… not as strong as Ru—!"

"Shut up!" Ranma shouted. "Can't you just not use my name, if you have to talk to me? Call me… call me _Her_ or something!"

'_My name…? God… I just called 'Ruby' my _name!_' _

"I… okay..." The woman replied sadly.

Ranma felt her disgust rise, along with an equal welling of self loathing for her slip up. Sage was _strong!_ Ranma could _feel_ it! Her power burbled beneath that single manacle she wore! Not as strong as her but she was definitely a great martial artist. Ranma felt the woman was probably as strong as Shampoo or Ukyo; stronger even!

At least she had been… once. Now her spirit was so broken, if she could break the earth in half with her fists it wouldn't matter. If she were let free she would probably run to her jailors.

…

'_God damnit!' _Ranma almost cried, staring at the other woman, enviously eyeing her loincloth. The Bridled Ones were allowed those. The ones who put on the collar they offered. They received those tattered clothings… and more… once they were taken.

It took everything she had to keep herself from attacking the woman for it… and more to keep herself from taking the collar. Every time they offered it, it seemed just a little more tempting. Every time they showed it to her… Every time… it looked just a little bit more comfortable. A little bit… more…

'_NO! N-NO!!'_

She shook herself, and violently banged her head into the metal wall. She barely felt it. She reared back her fists and slammed them into the wall, repeatedly… endlessly, till her knuckles bled her fury and her weakness. She felt her knuckles. The stinging, burning pain in them and in her head actually… felt _comfortable._ Slowly, she was beginning to realize that she wasn't _capable_ of giving herself pain.

Only they could. And they _could. _Every time they took her to their torture rooms the pain hurt ever more. Now her knuckles, bleeding to make her scream once upon a time, bone actually _showing_ through her cut skin, felt like little more than… paper cuts. Cold sores. _Bruises._

And that was one of the only pains she even felt. She'd obviously been sleeping for a long time. She hadn't felt this little pain in ages. Maybe two days… or three. Or a few weeks. No shorter than a day anyway. She didn't feel good. There was no such thing as feeling _good_ here. Just varying levels of pain, but this was one of the lowest she remembered.

Frustration aching in her bones, she embraced her Ki. Calming herself, the same way she always did. Embraced it. Swelled it. Until it overflowed. And pushed ever harder. She would break these manacles or she would die trying.

"Ruby… I'm sorry, I..." Aktaya said weakly.

Ranma looked down at her knuckles. She wanted to scream, but that would just let Borage know she was awake and ready to be… taken once again.

In her anger, unquenchable anger throwing off the focus of her ki attacks on the manacles, she threw her arms and sat against the wall. The cold feel of the stone against her back froze her, but she took it in stride. It helped her focus too.

Until she broke free, all she had here was her mind. And, when pressed, she was a genius. Idly, she catalogued everything she had learned.

The guards changed shifts every seven to eight hours. Though she thought they ran on a system slightly off from hours because they always managed to change a bit before. She still had yet to narrow down the exact time, but given another week she would find the opportunity to get it.

The room that held the manacles was seven meters outside the cellblock. Such a room existed outside of every cellblock, just in case one of the manacles went defective, and she'd narrowed the number of cellblocks to between thirty and fifty… though how many cells each block contained, she did not know.

Cellmates and jailors talked every now and then, and despite the quiet first night, this room was home to _many_ prisoners. Stories heard while slung over a man's shoulders, him usually fingering her, were not the most reliable, but she'd come to believe that she knew the manacles did _not_ last forever. They… expired… though the time it took was somewhere around ten years. And she would _NOT _wait that long.

The man who worked the shift from between around two in the day to nine at night was a weakling, and likely the easiest to kill with that torch-spike down the hall. Still, he was _able_ to use his ki… If she took a hit the plan would fail.

No escape would be made without the willing, or unwilling, cooperation of the other cellmates. Safety in numbers. She would offer the opportunity, and open every lock. Every bar, and let them run for the hills.

While she went for her true target. But… she didn't know where it _was!_ Borage _had_ to sleep. She had to find out _when, _and _where. _

Only then could her plan work.

And with her mind drunk on her body's self-secreting pain killers, there was no chance of that. So… she had to avoid being tortured… just one day… one _single day! _And she was sure she could find what she needed.

"Ak… Aktaya… have you found anything new?" Ranma asked dismally. She'd asked it many times. And many times heard the answer she hated.

"N-nothing helpful… I'm sorry R… I'm sorry." She said weakly. "But… I… the man you hit… he died. Borage had him killed."

Ranma wasn't certain whether to grin or frown. A nameless man, but even these tormentors had those who loved them. Those who cared. She would kill them, but she would remember every death. Only Borage would she feel no guilt for. Some people just needed to die.

She settled for a frown. A weak man, he was, and weak men were useful here. They were too few in number.

"Nothing else? Nothing new about the grounds? Nothing?" She asked vainly.

Aktaya seemed to pause for a moment. "I... there is… G… Galm wants to take me as his… Seven others challenged, but Galm thinks they are weak. I… don't think I'll be here much long—!"

"N-No! Please… you can't leave! You can't…" Ranma burst. "You…"

What could Aktaya do? If Galm beat the seven who challenged then Aktaya would be his and his alone. She would go to his home. Be _his_ servant. _His_ pet.

_His._

Only the broken ones were allowed that. A _privilege. One _master. One… just one.

'_If I took the collar, Borage would take me... I'm sure of it. The only way to stay here would be to…' _Her eyes trailed to Sage. The woman was covered in mud and soot and dirt. Dull eyes, and a duller heart, lay boring through her beautiful face and body.

To bear Galm's children for him. Sons anyway. The Musk did not have daughters, though why, Ranma could not understand. That was the fate that Aktaya was meant to face.

"Ruby… I… I've tried to be strong like you. I… How long have we been here? I… can't take it! I can't… I…" Her words trailed off somberly, and Ranma felt despair rise in her.

Aktaya was the only one here who was still _alive! _Sage? Sage was a doll, terrified of torture that she hadn't even _felt_ in years! The women in the cell on the other side of hers rarely said anything beyond barks for silence when someone was crying too much. Mo Din La, another girl across the hall, her skin black as midnight, was always far too dazed from her own torture to even speak. A weaker version of herself, Ranma supposed.

There were others. Eika. The girl _was_ a pet in every sense of the word. Even more so than Sage. Ranma brought up escape to her, and she began screaming to the guards! The girl didn't even _want_ to be rescued! As if… as if being free would actually _hurt _her!

_'But then, Eika isn't tortured… is she, Ruby?' _Ranma thought bleakly. The girl's moans of pleasure, mingled with the heavy breathing of _more_ than two men, had been the alarm to wake Ranma many times. There was no one else there who could even _hear_ her. There was no one else.

"I… Ruby… Last time I went it… It didn't hurt." Aktaya said suddenly.

'_What…?' _Thought Ranma, confused. _'Didn't hurt…? Didn't… hurt…?' _The words didn't make sense to her. Everything here hurt. Everything in this place was pain.

"Galm… he took me on his own. The others… the ones who've… who've raped me before… they were laughing at him when he carried me out, but he didn't care." The girl was choking as if the words hurt her.

'_What is she saying…?' _Ranma didn't understand. What was this…?

"He took me somewhere else. A bed room… and laid me down. He… he talked to me." She seemed resigned… as if something had happened that she wished hadn't.

She sounded like the _others._ Like the broken ones. The Bridled Ones. She'd taken the collar to avoid so much pain… but till now she'd still… _sounded_ normal…

'_God this can't be happening.' _

"He said he always liked docile women, who still had sense. That I was perfect for him. That I shouldn't be locked up in a dungeon, tortured day in and day out! And… I… I shouldn't! I shouldn't be here! I should—!"

"You'd rather be a slave? Be a dog that comes whenever he calls just because his hands felt good!?" Ranma snapped. She already knew what had happened.

"I'm not strong like you!" The girl retorted. Her voice swam with sobs and anger. "He… It felt so good… he was… gentle… like nothing I'd ever felt before! He kissed me… told me I was—!"

"He's raped you! He _has_ raped you! You can't just let this go!" Ranma shouted, her anger burning! How could Aktaya do this? How could she _let_ someone touch her? How could she allow herself to… to…

"_Shut up!" _Growled the older woman in the next cell over. Both ignored her.

"You… you've been in pain so long that you don't even remember what it's like to feel _good_ do you? To feel loved? I hear what they say about you! They talk! They say you're hard as stone! They say you don't even wince when they… god, I can't _be that_ Ruby! I… I can't stay here… Much longer and I'll... die…"

"But you can't leave me!" Ranma boomed, but even as she spoke her heart burned, and guilt swelled in her throat. She knew she couldn't make Aktaya into her… but the girl was her only chance. Her only ally. The only one she had. Everyone else here was long broken. Long since enslaved to the fear of pain, or the love of pleasure.

Aktaya didn't deserve this. If she could escape… even to a life of servitude… it was still better than living in this hell.

"Ruby… I…" The girl breathed. "I know you can't give in… but I don't want you to die…"

Ranma did not speak for a long time, but finally, she found her words. "You… can't fight my battles… I should know that." Guilt and sobs wracked her at the same time, but she had sworn… no tears. No quarter. No weakness. "I… I love you… Aktaya. Someday… someday I'll come for you. Someday… I'll set you free."

The silence lasted longer than ever.

"I believe in you." The other girl whispered.

Ranma failed to notice the fire beginning to burn in Sage's eyes.

The cell gates opened. And Ranma was hard as stone once again. She sighed in relief at the sound of the first step, then mentally slapped herself as she let loose the breath she didn't even know she'd been holding.. She was stronger than that… she… she was.

The steps were light. They didn't shake the entire complex like Borage's did. And there were few others who came to get her for torture. So… it was probably just one of the guards with food. Or Gimmer, giving out his balms.

"Ah! Look! It is my little brother's toy!" Came the light voice of a thin, wiry man with long billowy black hair, hanging out of a dark cowl. Ranma's eyes moved up to meet his, and she glared. His light voice, full of humor and light-heartedness, made Ranma's ears want to listen, but she knew better. She saw blackness in him.

All thought of tears, of Aktaya leaving her, left her in an instant. Her expression schooled to hard stony defiance. How she did it, even she didn't know.

He stood looking down at her, as if indulging a particularly admiring fan. "Ruby, he calls you, yes?" The man asked. He seemed to speak with an ever-present laugh that never quite touched his eyes.

"My name is Ranma." She stated. She didn't demand it as she once had. No. The time for demanding was over. Slow patience was the only thing that would work here.

The man's unbearable grin widened. "Of course you are!" He beamed. "My but you _are_ a fun one! You know, little brother is becoming quite _outraged_ that he has yet to tame you. But I know ones like you. Physical pain is never going to break a… a _lioness_ like _you!_"

Ranma barely heard his words. In his hand was a bowl. Of stew. Oh _god_ did it smell good! Her nose breathed in the scent of clusters of beef. Carrots, long out of season, boiled in water for hours. She couldn't help but notice Sage eyeing the bowl as well. It took everything Ranma had to quell the sneer she almost gave the woman.

"Oh…? You… you want this? Why it's just a midday snack you know." He stated, his humor almost nauseating.

Midday. Midday. It was midday. Okay. Okay, that helped. Now she could measure. The guards usually began their shifts around dawn which was… at about seven thirty or so. But she was in China so that was… oh _dammit_! She couldn't think with that stew in her nose!

Bread was what they gave her. Bread and water. Carrots and rice if she was lucky, but the carrots were always old. Her mouth watered in agonizing hunger. Oh what she would do for a single bite!

He moved the bowl out, his arm protruding. Her eyes followed it, watching the steam flowing out of it in awe. He moved his arm the other way; her eyes followed once again.

"Well. They keep you quite hungry don't they? Heh. Amazing. Do you know how long you've been here? You probably have a pretty good idea don't you? Smart girl like you." He asked with a grin. A master smiling down at a puppy doing a particularly good trick.

She waited… then nodded. She had no idea.

"That's what I thought…" He stated, his words showing the first hint of the darkness his eyes held, but that tiny hint was gone as quickly as it had come. "Well, I'm quite full, you see. Just had a banquet! So I'd be glad to give this to you!"

He suddenly opened the gate, _without_ the key, and held it wide. "Come on out. Not you… no not you… I despise weaklings like you."

Sage quivered in fear in the corner, and that was more than enough for Ranma to know that she couldn't trust this man… but the stew smelled so good Sage could hardly keep her eyes from it. Ranma wasn't able to at all.

'_At least we have _one_ thing in common… whoever you are…' _Ranma thought bitterly. She too, despised Sage for her weakness… though more for never calling her by her name. Aktaya got plenty of hate for that too… but dammit, Aktaya had no reason to be part of this! She was _truly_ weak. It was selfish of her to want Aktaya to remain in these torture chambers... but she didn't think she could last on her own.

Ranma stood. Her embrace on her ki had never left, and she pushed it even harder now. The manacles were no closer to breaking than they had ever been, but Ranma did not stop. She never stopped. If she was awake… if she was able… she was pushing. All her ki. All her ki. Always.

Slowly she walked to the gate… out it… to stand before the man. She glanced warily down the hall and saw the door to the cellblock also hanging wide open. For the first time, she was given a moment to actually view just how long the room really was. Probably sixty cells lined both sides, and hers was right in the middle of the long corridor, on the right from the entrance. About as many held prisoners as there were empty cells, but Ranma was elated with the chance to finally count. This new information finally could give her a decent estimate as to how many prisoners there were!

…

She could do it in her head if she just knew _math_ a bit better! Damn her idiocy! Thirty to fifty cellblocks… sixty cells each… that meant… Oh _god_ that stew! She wanted it…!

Her stomach growled, as her mouth began to water in earnest.

"Yes… the cell door is open. But you're more than smart enough to know that there is no way I would let you escape. Borage has surely taught you _that much _at least. Hmph… Barbarian, though he may be." The man said with a smile. His other hand was hidden behind his back and that made Ranma wary.

Borage's name made Ranma's anger rise, and she almost lost her grip on her ki, but the stew was just as, if not _more _distracting.

Ranma turned her eyes away from the open cellblock door, and back to the man. He now held the stew down to her hands.

"Here you go… you should enjoy it!" The man beamed again.

Ranma warily took the bowl. Looked at the delicious looking broth held within. Then back at the man. The stew. Then the man again.

"Oh it's not poison, little Rub—!"

Ranma chucked the bowl of steaming stew in his face and bolted. Dashing like mad, she made for the door. So slow… so very slow without her ki enhancing her legs!

She heard the man sputter, astonished for a few moments. Then he gave a hearty laugh.

'_Don't stop. Don't stop! If he's going to be an idiot and give me the chance! I've got to make it! I've got—!"_

A sharp whistling of air like the sound of projectiles. Without warning, Ranma stopped dead.

"Ah, hah hah hah!" The man exclaimed. "Hah hah hah hah! Stupendous! Marvelous! You are every bit the firecracker he says! Oh… oh! You make me so happy…! Oh I haven't felt a thrill like that in _years!_"

Ranma's mouth hung open. Her buttocks burned! Her shoulders! Slowly, she slumped to the ground. She wanted to scream. But nothing would come, her mouth emitting silent screams that would burst the eardrums of any who could hear them.

'_Oh god… it hurts!'_

Dimly, she was aware of the gasp of prisoners around her. She heard Aktaya's scream too. But pain was all she could feel. The sound of strings being pulled was her only warning before she was sliding along the stone floor, being dragged back to the man by the four tiny harpoons lodged into her skin.

As if he was fishing with four hooks and all of them caught the same shark.

A clink.

Ranma howled, as the four things tore from her body.

The man only grinned as the four claws from his right hand retracted to their rightful places on his fingers. He walked the few feet left between him and his little brother's new toy. Smiled at the look of her bloodied rear, and the two gaping holes just above her shoulder blades. Then he bent down to her ear.

Ranma's mouth still hung open in shock. Silent screams leaving her again, as she felt the ability to speak leave. Her eyes wide in horror and pain that made even Borage's worst seem a pleasant dream. She couldn't move… something was poisoning her…!

Then… the man whispered. Still smiling. Still cheery… "When Borage fails to break someone, little Ruby, then I give it my hand_._ Just thought I'd give you… a taste. My name is Marjoram… Remember it!"

He laughed lightly into her ear. Her eyes could not be more wide.

Ranma tasted his lips… and the light hint of broth that still lay splashed on them, before she fell unconscious again.

* * *

* * *

Aktaya stared in horror at the four strings protruding from the man out to somewhere beyond. She heard Ruby's frantic running and could not fathom _how_ the girl was able to throw that stew into the man's face… but then, the girl was incredible.

She knew that well.

She'd screamed and backed to the far end of her cell as she watched the man fling his hand and the four claws on the end of his glove had sprung away.

"Ruby…" She whispered. She slowly crept forward as the man laughed. He'd seemed so… cheerful. So nice…!

The soft 'shuncks' of the claws entering human flesh disavowed that notion. As did the sound of a person being dragged along the stone floor as she watched the strings retract back into his glove.

'_Oh god, Ruby!' _Aktaya thought weakly.

Her anger flared but she quelled it quickly. Anger would get her the same thing as quickly as she could even think it.

Ruby's body slid across the stone floor until it stopped right in front of Aktaya's cell. The red-head's eyes were spread wide in horror, unseeing, her mouth hanging open in slack jawed torment.

Aktaya jerked at a sudden 'chink' from down the hall and the four harpoons jerked themselves out of Ruby's skin… then, the girl let out a scream. Short, low and throaty, her eyes staring right into Aktaya's but seeing nothing, the girl looked like she had never felt such agony.

"R-Ruby!" Aktaya couldn't hold back the shout… but fortunately it was hidden by the girl's howl.

Then, the man approached. For all the bravery she wished she had, Aktaya could not remain anywhere _near_ the bars on her cell. Terrified, she scrambled back, and buried herself in the straw, quivering in horror.

The man knelt down and whispered something to Ranma… but the girl's widened eyes didn't seem to comprehend.

Then… he kissed her… picked her up, and walked away.

"R-Ruby…" Aktaya repeated once again. _'Oh god… was she… was she dead…?'_

It was not till she heard the cell door close that she felt safe enough to move again. And even then, she did not. Time passed slowly. The usual sound of prisoners was gone, all of them surely quivering under their hay-piles just as she was.

Then… a whisper reached her ears.

"Ak… Aktaya…?"

Aktaya was astonished. "Sage…?" She whispered. Sage had never called her anything save for Tua. Her pet name. Ruby was the only one brave enough to… to…

"I… No. My name… isn't Sage… I hate that name. I… _hate it._" Came words of passion that Aktaya had never heard on any lips but Ruby's. Words of fire. Words of strength. From Sage…?

…What in hell?

"B-But… but you… you're a Bridled One! I… I thought…" Aktaya exclaimed, slowly extricating herself from the straw. Her hand went to the collar around her neck. _'I'm a Bridled One too…' _She thought dismally.

The woman snorted. "My… my name is Chell… Chell…" The woman repeated it, as if it sounded so strange on her tongue that she wasn't even sure if it really _was _her name. Listening, Aktaya heard the sound of a cringe.

_Chell_ if that was her real name…was still every bit as terrified as she always was. But Aktaya was terrified of using her own name as well. The guards were sneaky. If they heard it…

Suddenly a gut splitting scream of terror erupted from somewhere beyond the cellblock. Ruby's voice. It was the kind of scream to make wolves whimper, and the hardiest of men hunch their shoulders in fear. The kind to make demons shiver.

Aktaya had never been so afraid in her life.

* * *

Ranma jerked awake to the feel of anguish itself. She could not think. She could not breath. She could only feel. Agony. A thousand times a thousand times the worst that she had ever felt.

Ranma couldn't tell who it was. She couldn't tell where the pain came from… only that it was _everywhere._ Everything was blurred. She shut her eyes and tried to curl herself. Her legs were locked down, feet flat against the floor, her body bent over and her breasts pressed into something cold and hard. She couldn't _see_ anything!

Knives… cold wet knives… The feel of a man and the smell of lust, but she could make no sense of it. All of her limbs screamed to her louder than her throat could ever convey.

But she tried. She screamed trying to remember how to beg, her voice coming out hoarsely.

Another knife cut into her forearms, also bolted down… somewhere. She felt cold metal protruding from hollows in her shoulders and buttocks that couldn't possibly be there. Someone was pulling them! Using them as handles to pull himself forward…

Above all she felt him behind her… the feel of iron between her legs. It was Borage. She couldn't understand the meaning of sounds through the agony. Of words. But it was Borage. The poison. The poison making everything he did hurt so much more than she had ever believed possible.

Her screams echoed for what seemed decades. She tried to scream that she would take the collar. That she would do _anything! _Anything to get away from _this! _Her insides tore, and churned, though from where she could not tell.

But she could not form words… only screams.

Screams, till her throat ran drier than deserts.

Screams till her voice left her.

But blissful unconsciousness never came.

* * *

It was hours before the sounds of Ruby's torture faded to where Chell could not hear them, and hours more till she felt brave enough to make a sound herself.

The moment she tried to, the gate to the cell block opened again. Eight times it had opened since Ranma had left. Seven times. She wasn't sure. Two, to feed the prisoners. One, to take others, ones more broken than even she. The girl Mo Din La, was taken from her cell as well, though the poor girl had only just returned to consciousness.

Another three times, were guards or torturers coming for still other prisoners that Chell had no way of knowing.

The men had brought Mo Din La back after that… and the final visitor was Gimmer, who spent a long time applying salves to the girl himself. He stayed in the cell far longer than necessary, but the girl was unconscious and more Gimmer liked a girl, the better off they were sure to be.

'_Please, bring the girl back…_' Chell thought. _'Don't let her be broken…_'

Chell had finally found her spine. A tiny portion of it at least. With Ruby muttering her plans to herself, half crazed, Chell realized that the idea the girl had just might actually _work_. She pitied herself for not thinking of it, but realized that would do no good.

Two men made their way down the hall as Chell thought to herself, and stopped at the cell next to, and across from her. Right across from Aktaya's cell. The two men held a woman in their arms, who's hair glimmered red slightly in the dim light. Four silver rods about the length of a short forearm jutted out of the girl's back. One from each shoulder. One for each buttock.

The girl was _awake._

"Oh god…" Chell murmured… memories surfacing in her mind. Her hand trailed across the place where the rods had once protruded from her own shoulders. They were handles meant for making a girl easier to rape.

Chell well remembered it. The time when she had given in. Now Ranma would face the same. The girl was stronger than her though. Maybe… maybe she still had her mind… maybe… she still…

Years now, Chell had feared the very torture Ranma had just endured. Years upon years, she had feared it. Dreaded it, even long after she had begged for her collar and the bars had been removed from her body.

The two men walked away, shutting and locking the door, laughing as a sob bellowed from the pile lying in the cell.

She waited till the door closed. Aktaya did as well.

"Ru… Ruby…?" The girl whispered.

Another sob. The girl was weeping. Well, Chell had expected that; as soon as Marjoram had first appeared Chell had known what was coming. _She_ had been able to handle Borage's touch on his own. But when Marjoram used his potion, Chell became their pet Sage, and her mind had never been the same.

At least… until now.

"Are… you… alright…?" Chell asked… but she knew the girl wasn't. She never would be again.

"_I'll take the collar… Just stop… Please…" _Came words so low they could not even be called whispers. _"Please… anything… please…"_

The girl wasn't even here. She was still in the torture room. In her mind… _Ruby_ was still there. Chell almost wept… she would have… if not for one small fact.

'_She isn't wearing a collar!' _Chell's mind screamed to her. By god! The girl wasn't wearing a collar! She wasn't wearing one!? How? HOW!? Even after this, the girl still stood?

"R… Ranma…!" Aktaya screamed. "NO! No you can't give up! You can't! Ran… Ranma!"

The cell gate door burst open. Feet walked quickly. Chell barely noticed the sound of Aktaya struggling. "Ranma!" The girl screamed. But Chell didn't hear. And neither did Ranma. As Aktaya was shuffled down the corridor, still shouting Ranma's name. Chell could only marvel at the red-haired girl, whose tolerance for pain exceeded anything even remotely human.

"What you face now girl is darker than even I have seen…" Chell murmured. "But when you wake I'll be with you. Better to die… than this. Better to die. I won't call you Ruby again Ranma. I promise."

The sounds of the girl's whimpers lasted hours before she fell to sleep. And each one firmed the resolve that Chell had thought she had lost so very long ago.

* * *

Days passed, and Chell could not help but stare ever more longingly over at the girl who was now her one last hope. Was she broken? Would she be inconsolable when she woke? Or would she be strong, ever more firm in her desire for revenge?

Why had they not put Ranma in her cell? Why had they not allowed her to clean the girl? She wanted to see her! To touch her and know she was alive!

The girl lay motionless, flat on her bare chest. She rose and fell with her breaths, telling Chell that she was still alive at the very least but it did not console her enough.

Gimmer visited her almost three times a day. Rubbing balms over the girl. Careful to avoid nudging the bars to harshly for fear that he would wake her, he carefully placed her in his arms face up, so the bars touched nothing, resting her back upon one of his crouched knees. He spread pasty substances over the girl's skin… cleaned her of whatever bleeds she still had, and there were many, rolled her back over, and left.

Aktaya was not returned.

Chell could only assume the girl had been taken by… Galm was it? The girl's life was probably much better than it had been here. The thought brought Chell back to the time when she'd been taken.

Borage's personal toy. It had been worse than the dungeons. It hadn't been long before Chell realized unless she did something, she would die, as Borage was no more kind to those he took, then those he spent the time convincing to take the collar.

So… she began to degrade herself. Disgusting him… it made him not want to touch her. She… sickened him… and that had been the best she could hope for. Sooner or later, he'd thrown her, collared, right back into the dungeons he'd taken her out of.

Most everyone in the cells had a story like that. Well… most everyone who had not once been an animal, anyway. Their masters too harsh for them to want to stay. Despite their cruelty, the Musk were against killing in cold blood. Against the killing of slaves. Something that Chell still was surprised by, but it was the only reason she was still alive. So most here had taken the collar but had disgusted their master in some way. Either that, or they were the Young Ones. The newly captured.

In her years here, Chell had drawn estimates to the number of Musk there were. Around three hundred thousand men, and increasing by the year. All of them were fighters, even the weakest of them able to use their Ki. Another three hundred and sixty thousand woman resided in the city with masters, or in the work camps, or in the dungeons where she now lay. The subservient property of their male masters, the whole lot of them.

No. Chell would _never_ be welcome among the Amazon's. People could not be property and the Amazon's, in their own way, were just as guilty as the Musk in that regard. Though at least men had some choice in the matter in Joketsuzoku, Tenuguzoku, and Kinagoda.

The three Amazon villages, all together, had probably a close number to half that of the Musk. It was years ago that she remembered first hearing about the war that they planned and now it seemed all their plans were coming to fruition.

Going into small villages. Kidnapping men. Inducting them. Training them. Making them soldiers, each able to use their Ki. The added bonus of easy, docile women did not hinder the Musk's efforts to recruit, and for years, their numbers bolstered by the day. That was how they grew their numbers. That, and adding the blood of animals to the men, and fusing them together with ancient ki techniques to give the men the traits of animals whose blood they had not been born with.

New faces appeared. New women in the cells and new men to guard them. Some women, a precious few, were strong enough to hold their will steady against the deep cuts of the knives. None lasted long under Borage, and as far as Chell knew, only she had held the Rhino-looking man's attention for anywhere near as long as Ranma had.

Ranma… Ranma was a one-in-a-million. Every time a guard entered this cell he could not help but stare lustily at the red-head, and only Gimmer seemed even partially immune to that, his age finally decimating his hormones.

Musk, it seemed, dreamed of breaking strong woman… and the stronger the break, the higher the honor in their eyes. A petty honor of course, weaker than that gained by besting another on the field of battle, but an honor nonetheless.

Ranma… well… Borage was already going to receive strong honor when she broke, if she broke. But any who held knives to her, when she pleaded the collar, would probably shoot up in ranking like a condor takes flight.

Chell had heard Ranma's rambled whispers after she had returned from the bar torture… But she had faith that when the girl awoke, the pain would be lessened enough that she could find her spine again. At least one last time.

Chell would not die a coward. Even Aktaya had found the bravery to scream Ranma's name in her last moments within this dank place. If the slip of a Japanese girl had the courage for that…? Well, so did she.

"Please be alright, Ranma." Chell whispered silently, staring at the red-head's still prone form.

The girl only shivered in her dreams.

* * *

He lay in a beautiful field. It was a place he well recognized, and he was happier to be there than he could ever remember. Buildings touched the fringes of the sky in the distance and a bridge, his favorite bridge in the whole world, ran over the canal nearby.

Fish jumped out of the canal in playful attempts to reach for the sky and cheery children played all around, right up to the canal's slopes. A few, even swam though most quickly got back out of the water, and ran gaily to towels held out by irritated, yet laughing mothers.

He knew the place, and the faces of the people laying on the green grass beside him. Their faces smiling. Singing. Dancing. Anything joyous that one could do outside on a day as sunny and beautiful as this one, one of his friends was doing it.

The girl with long lavender hair danced. A man with a strange polka-dotted bandana wrapped around his head, grinning with a malicious glee that spoke of both rivalry and camaraderie in its own unusual way, danced with her.

Beside him, to either side, sat two more woman, both fitting easily onto the large blanket strewn over the sloped grass. The one on his left, dressed somewhat boyish but she was no less beautiful for it, and his heart warmed when she smiled up at him, then turned her chopsticks back to a plate of okonomiyaki.

The other sat on his right, her deep black, almost bluish hair both long and short at the same time. He looked at her for a moment, and it was long. Glanced away, and looked back and it was short. Long. Then short again, but for some reason, that was not strange to him. She smiled at him too, but quickly turned away with a blush on her face to stare out at another man.

He stood, shirtless, having a casual spar it seemed a slight grin on his own face, as he chucked a gigantic chain across the field, only for it to be countered by a the lighting fast ribbon of his opponent. The two dueled for a time, each enjoying the act, neither making any attempt to truly harm the other, and both waving to his other friends, the children playing, and to him, mid battle without a care.

Turning behind him, he saw more faces. Slightly older, but not a bit less happy than the younger folk, two men stood, holding two women close. He knew them as well, and was glad to see them. Right next to them, an old woman, standing precariously balanced on a stick of thin wood, gave him a wave. Then, suddenly, her grin turned to a glower and she wacked a man, of similar age and height, across the head. The why of it, he could not see, but he was sure the old man probably deserved it.

Grinning good naturedly, the old man rubbed his head, while he too, waved.

So many faces. So many friends. It was all he could do, not to throw back his arms and laugh at the sheer beauty of it all. This was how life should be. How it _ought_ to be.

'_But this isn't how things are… Have you forgotten where you are…? What you've become…?' _

The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. The lavender haired girl kept dancing with the boy in the bandana. The two with weapons kept on with their friendly spar. The two girl's sitting next to him remained smiling. None had heard it.

He shook himself. He must have imagined it.

Turning to the blue haired girl, her hair short for the moment, though it would surely change again if he looked away, he leaned down to ask her if she was going to finish the delicious looking plate of yakisoba sitting before her.

"Are you—?" He began, but abruptly trailed off. He couldn't remember the girl's name. That was strange. He knew her so well… he was sure of that. She was _uncute._ That seemed important for some reason. But he didn't…

He turned to the other girl. A friend from long ago, he knew. One he had fought once. She cross-dressed, but that was only part of her charm. She was _very_ cute.

No name.

Turning behind him he looked at the old couple and the two men and their wives standing behind them.

He knew them all very well. The old woman on the stick was related to the lavender-haired girl, and the old man was a perverted panty thief, petty, but often times mild mannered, and had a knack to be there when Ranma really needed him, much the same as the old woman.

The two men, were his father, and his father's best friend. The woman held by his father was, of course, his mother. The other woman he did not know, but he recalled having seen her images before in photo albums and picture frames back home.

'_Home…? You have no home. Not any more… you have a master now, remember. And a collar. A nice shiny one. They'll pat you on the head if you're a good girl for them, you know! Did you truly forget…? Have you been broken, not into a docile pet, but into a madman? Is that what has become of you? This is an illusion.' _

Ranma gave a start, and looked around, seeking the voice. But he saw no one and only heard the laughter of the children. And of his friends. His… friends…

"I don't know your name." He stated bluntly to the blue haired girl, her hair now long and tied off at the bottom.

The girl said nothing, and smiled at him. Then at the man fighting the girl with the ribbon again. She hadn't even heard him…?

Slowly he stood, and turned to view them all.

He knew them all. Very well… but he didn't remember their names. Why? Why couldn't he remember their names?

He walked up the hill towards the bridge, and almost stopped at the depressed frowns that creased the faces of the two girls. The girl with okonomiyaki put the plate down quickly to turn her own sad face upon him, and he started when he realized that she was suddenly wearing a dress.

The blue haired girl wore a bathing suit, that left _nothing_ to the imagination.

"I… I'm sorry… Why don't I know your name…? Will you tell me?"

Neither said a word. Both beckoned him to return though. Both pleaded.

'_This is wrong, and you know it. Find the truth. Wake up! Wake up and take off their collar! Wake up! Be a man! _Wake up!'

He shivered. "I'm… sorry…" He said to the two girls, both now risen to their knees pleading to him.

Idly, he realized that the others wanted him to stay as well. Their own looks were just as pleading. Just as alluring.

"I need to know… to know who you are… If you would only tell me?" He asked. Why could he not remember!?

He turned away, and the sounds of children screaming echoed in his ears. He turned. The children still played, but the screams did not leave. Something told him, he had to leave. He had to find out why he couldn't remember… who…

Walking away, ignoring the children screaming, he soon managed to reach the top of the bridge. Crossing it, he saw a man dressed in a Kendo outfit. Somewhat of a fool, he knew the man as well. Disdained him somewhat, but he could be tolerated.

The man looked out over the canal and did not even turn to give Him a glance. Neither of them gave any notice to the screaming children either.

On the opposite side stood another girl, her hair brown and cropped short. She stared out across the opposite end of the canal. She too, ignored him.

Turning back, he looked at his friends. All of them stared at him, pleading dismally for him to return. The children did as well, but they wailed and screamed for him to come back. The mothers tried desperately to console them, but nothing worked. Nothing. He had to go back. Go back to his friends… go back…

'_To mindless numbness. To eternal madness. That is what lays here. You know this…'_

The voice seemed depressed as well. Sad even. As if it, too, wanted to go back.

But it knew that this was _wrong. _And so did he.

He walked on, between the two staring out across opposite ends of the canal and as he passed, they too, turned to him, their eyes pleading.

Again he turned, wishing he could but return to them all. Why… why could he not remember their _names!?_

On the other end of the bridge where he had stood before, now two more people watched him, hand in hand. A man and a woman. The man was tall, wearing a strange dogi with a gleeful look in his eyes. The man was torn between staring at him, and at the woman, who's hand he held gingerly.

The woman, long brown hair hanging far down below her, was similarly torn, her eyes turning from him, to the man in tandem. They both, too, were beckoning him.

He took a step towards them and the children's cries faded to laughter once more. Each step their laughter grew louder, and the smiles on his friends faces grew broader and ever more inviting.

'_No, no. This isn't real. You know it isn't. Don't go that way. If you do, you'll never wake. You'll be theirs forever. You'll be lost… forever…' _

They were so inviting! So warm! They were like… like home.

He hadn't been home in a long time. No. He hadn't.

He'd been away from home. Where? Where had he been taken? Why wasn't he at home?

'_Prison… torture… you want to forget these things…? Don't be an idiot. You're stronger than that.'_

What was his name? He couldn't remember… A name came close to his lips but slipped away barely refreshing him, like drinking the dew from a leaf.

'_Don't remember?' _

Looking around he stopped. The children did not start screaming, but they did not laugh any more. Right between the bridge. Between the two on opposite sides. Down below all of them watched him. All eyes on him. All looking for him. Hoping he would do what they wished. He would join them for endless blissful eternity.

He shook his head. He did not remember.

'_Want to see?' _

Slowly, very slowly, he nodded.

'_Then I'll show you.' _

Abruptly the world flashed. And everything was gone. It took a moment before his eyes adjusted to the unbelievable darkness.

'_This is where you are. This is who you are.' _

His eyes traveled across a girl before he even realized he was able to see again. A girl. A girl that was _him._ He didn't know how. But he knew that this girl was _him_. Her hair shimmered red, always the most noticeable trait. Blue eyes that shown like sapphires. A gleaming collar glistened. It was the most ornate thing he had ever seen. A golden choker, stocked full of Rubies, each one seeming to gleam bigger than the last. Each dotting the ornate hilt.

It wasn't a grand thing to him. The scene made bile rise in his throat. For the collar was the only thing the girl wore.

She sat on her knees before a giant of a man, sitting off the edge of an ornate bed affront her. A man whose name he also could not remember. Still, he wanted to kill this man, but for some reason he couldn't make himself move. The girl… _he…_ was… doing something. Something that… didn't make any sense. He would never do that! Not ever… not… but why was she?

The giant let out a moan that echoed down the halls.

'_Do you remember now…?'_

"Oh… Ruby… you are breathtaking!" The beast of a man exclaimed.

His hate grew stronger. He wanted to kill the giant man. But.. he could not move.

The girl lifted her face from his lap, and stared up into him. Joy brimmed in her eyes. Glee… at his words. Giddiness at his approval. The girl practically purred as the man ran one of his giant hands through her hair, gently, if it could be called so.

'_This is what you are… This is what you have fallen to.' _

He stared, but he couldn't believe. No. This couldn't be… this couldn't.

A name broke the fringes of his memory.

"_Borage…"_

He hissed at it, a snake's voice brimming through human tongue, empowering all the hatred within him. Filling him. Enthralling him with anger.

The girl's eyes raised to him. She raised up to him. And kissed him.

It was all he could do not to cry, with rage, with despair, with fury, with depression. How… how could this happen how could… wait…? Unbelievingly, his eyes stared at the girl as her hand rose. One of the two hands, wrapped so rapturously around the giant's neck, slowly, ever so slowly, rose…

In that hand, lay a metal spiked pole…

Almost soothingly, like laying a child to sleep, the girl laid it into the giant's neck. His eyes widened in momentary horror, but she never stopped kissing him. As she shoved the pole deep into his neck, blood streaming down her breasts pressed so tightly into his chest.

His depression evaporated, and joy lit his features, along with a light for vengeance. Vengeance.

_'Yes. THIS is who you are.'_

Names rushed into his mind. Names. Places. Things. Akane. Nerima. Shampoo. Ukyo. Okonomiyaki. Kodachi. Ribbon. Nabiki. Money. Shampoo. Genma. Training. Soun. Nodoka. Happosai. Cats. Fear. Borage. Torture. Herb. Betrayal. Regret. Anger. Anger… endless anger.

Ruby.

The name. Her name.

Ruby.

Ruby's eyes snapped open. Pain greeted her but that was nothing new. The lack of pain, would mean her job was finally finished. And it would not be, could not be, until she had killed Borage at the very least. Only then could it even ease. For herself. For those before her that he had tortured. She would destroy this place. This prison. And that was all there was for it.

And she would make them fear the name they gave her till that day came when she finally was allowed to lay her hand to them, and watch their life seep away.

"You're awake! Ru..Ra…" Sage's voice fluttered in Ruby's ears, but she paid it no mind.

She stood. And pain came with it, but she ignored it. She was hard. Harder than Ranma had been. She was not Ranma. She never would be again. She was Ruby. She was the pet they had so craved. Now come back with the spirit of tens of thousands of tortured souls.

Her arm twisted around to her shoulder, and the metal pole protruding out from the right shoulder blade. She grasped it firmly with her fist and braced herself. A flick. And she yanked the thing free, skin exploding from where it had grown over the spike they'd placed inside her.

She barely flinched.

Three times she repeated the process. And there were her weapons. She was stronger than she had ever been. Stronger than she could ever be. She knew it for truth. That was all. Her ki pressed against the manacles on her wrists from the moment she had awoken, and the things strained ever harder to hold her power in. Her plan was already in motion.

She had four of them. Four.

She took three of the spikes and shoved them into the loft of hay below her. Then, she clenched the muscled in her back to stop the blood from flowing. And took the fourth one, bit her lip… and hid it as well…

And began a kata.

Pain? There was no such thing; she would never feel pain again.

And her ki pushed ever stronger…

**End Chapter Three**

**Author's Notes: **New chapter new chapter. And I didn't get to where I wanted to. Admittedly the dream sequence was kinda spur of the moment but I liked it. I wanted to get to it this chapter but trust me, for those of you waiting for Ranma to get her revenge? (Which is surely everyone who has read thus far) you will be immensely satisfied next chapter.

I wish you luck in your wait, and happy thoughts as you leave (a review). Don't for get to wipe your feet on the way out!

Oh! And before I forget! I got a girlfriend! Woohoo! So… I might be writing a bit less than usual. Either way. Expect the next chapter out pretty soon. Every chance I get, I'm writing here, and I REALLY wanna get to this part in the next chapter.

**Please Review!**

**Till Next!  
**

**MB**


	5. Learn and Strike

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Four  
Learn and Strike**

_Her first attack. Her first attack was the day before the King began his war, or very close at least. Hundreds of prisoners escaped that day. Hundreds. Maybe even thousands. Perhaps half as many were caught and brought back, but it still surprised the hell out of them. _

_But what She did to the prince…? What She did to him was the type of thing that could make me… hah hah… it could make me orgasm just thinking about it. Still can. That's how much I hated him. Such sweet revenge. Such sweet, sweet revenge. Oh god! I cried my eyes out with laughter, even though I was one of the ones caught. How could I not be? Laughing till I cried, how could I possibly run, knowing that my revenge had finally… finally come? _

_I laughed. Long after they threw me back in my cell, I laughed long and loud enough to make them step warily around a mad-woman like me. _

_I think that was about the time She earned my unwavering loyalty. Anyone who could do something like that…? I would follow to death. Follow of my own free will._

_Follow… forever._

_

* * *

_Ryoga stared down his opponent harshly, but he was greeted, not with the smirk, or any of the self confidence that had once graced his old rival's face. No. Instead the man held the calm of a tamed tiger. The man actually took a stance instead of that annoying lazy grace he once carried, hands in his pockets. Now he stood ready... and almost... worried. Even so the man's eyes were hard and Ryoga found himself, uneasy. Not really afraid, but intimidated at the least.

The four strange stone manacles on his wrists and ankles seemed to thrum with power. From the man's story, or what he'd told of it so far, Ryoga knew that they actually held back much of his opponent's power. Even so... Ranma's calm assurance that he would win this spar left Ryoga even more uneasy than the man's barely restrained ki, filtering off him in 'waves.'

That and his uncanny desire _not_ to fight. It was ridiculous! How could -Ranma Saotome- _not_ want to fight? Honestly, Ryoga was having trouble believing he was speaking to the same person. So he was kept in a cell for a few years! That shouldn't... shouldn't have changed him this much. Ryoga had a strong feeling that Ranma had left _much_ out of his story the previous day. But now it was morning and there were fights to be fought.

He noticed, to his displeasure, that Xian Pu was anxiously awaiting the result of this battle. It was... as if... She eyed him with worry. As if their relationship itself just might depend on this battle.

It made him angry, but he was older now. Ranma well knew that he was much easier to defeat in anger. Without it, Ranma had to struggle for his victories. At least, that was how it once had been, but the man made no move to taunt him as he once would have. No. Instead, he stood there in a regular fighting stance. And to Ryoga's astonishment, the stance was... _off._

Well. Ranma had been known for surprises, but never...

"I... I'm sorry. Ryoga. I can't fight like this. It's... it's been a long time since I've... Anya?" He asked, suddenly, dropping his stance completely and turning his back. Ryoga saw that his form was still tense, prepared for an attack. As if Ranma actually expected him to attack his _back!_ What kind of an honorless bastard, did he think he was fighting?

Or... What kind of honorless bastards was he _used to fighting?_

"Empress?" Came a lilted voice. A woman walked out into the large gym-like room they stood in. Older and somewhat comely she seemed the type of woman who had been _born_ to cook and clean, though most definitely not a servant. Though she seemed a bit subservient to Ranma at least. "You require anything, Empress?"

Ranma rolled his eyes overly dramatically. "For the last time, Anya! Do you see breasts here, now?!" He gestured angrily to his chest. "Ah... just... get me some cold water, please?" He sighed in resignation.

The woman almost giggled. "As you wish, Empress Ruby." With that she gave an almost mocking curtsy and laughed as she headed off to gather a pitcher of water.

Ryoga almost felt sympathy for Ranma as he watched the other man sigh. Yeah. Two years or so in a jail cell stuck in the wrong gender would probably do things to anyone. Maybe he needed to cut the other man a bit of slack. He thought lightly about how Ranma had spoken to them the day before. He'd only been able to spend fifteen minutes, maybe a half hour, with them before 'important matters' called him away, and then he'd only let a few little bits of his story slip. At least two years in a prison cell of some sort. His manacles held back his ki somehow, and he had been locked. Little more than that had been given away.

But the way the people loved him... Her. It spoke volumes. No one they met had anything ill to say about Ryoga's long dead rival. Praise. Praise be to the Ruby Empress. Praise be to She who calls down the sky. All glory to She who gave us our freedom. Many other ridiculous monikers were used, as if they were as common as a hello or goodbye. Whatever Ranma had done... it had been _great. _Ryoga shivered at the memory of the mountain collapsing. Ranma diving head first into murky dust clouds of the collapsing crevice that Herb had fallen within.

Oh yes. If Ranma had people who were intimidated by him, Ryoga could definitely believe it. But those who praised him? What could _Ranma_ have done to get _that?_

"Thanks Anya," The man said as the woman slowly brought him back a pitcher of water. Ranma proceeded to dunk himself in the water. The change was nothing new or special, washing over Ranma with the same effect that Ryoga's had, blurring her for a moment and then reality snapping back in, to form the red-head that he had always remembered. She was a bit older. An inch or two taller maybe but still miles shorter than most everyone else. Many of them had grown too.

Ranma, or 'Ruby' as she was now, was just as beautiful as ever. The scar marring her face, and the many on her arms seemed freshened by the change. As a man, they were stretched, and strange as if they did not belong, but now they lay on her skin as if she were born with them. Her short hair, strange in and of itself, seemed to fit her just as well as ever, the diadem, not present right now, imprinted into her red locks.

Ryoga growled, under his breath as the girl turned to face him. "Sorry buddy." She said laughingly. As if this were all a joke. Of course that was what she thought. This was just a friendly spar! _Right._ The idiot didn't even realize that Ryoga's _'marriage' _hung in the balance here. Damn it! Ranma...

Try as he might, Ryoga couldn't lower his anger. Ranma had been dead for so long... and now... just as he'd found _true_ happiness, HE had to come back and steal it all away! Without even trying! He didn't even know he was doing it!

Ryoga growled again as he noticed Ranma's eyes trail to Shampoo.

All of the ambassadors sat here watching this. Odd that... the martial artists of Nerima as 'Ambassadors,' but still they were here. All ready to watch a 'spar' between old friends. Ranma hadn't wanted to even do it at first. And she was unbelievably busy. Awake hours before many of them, she seemed tired, even now. But not tired enough to stop flirting with _his_ fiancée! The bastard.

"The rules are classic, anything goes. First to three hits, or to render their opponent unconscious is the winner." Nabiki announced as she always had for those fighting in the Tendo Dojo. "Begin!"

Ryoga dashed forward in an instant, and Ranma was immediately on the defensive. Ducking his first blow, the girl... Dear god!

Ranma slid between his legs almost instantly, and flipped herself up onto his back, legs wrapping around his torso; like light given limbs, she danced, grappling with her feet, as was the Anything Goes School of Martial arts trademark, Ryoga only had a moment to realize the weight gripping behind him, before she lofted him into the air with the momentum of her roll, leaning herself under him.

Ryoga's eyes were wide in horror. He'd barely seen her move!

Flying in mid-air, he righted himself and prepared for a landing. Okay, he'd have to take this seriously if he even wanted to come close...

He landed with a quick seven finger strike to the ground, and seven lines of earth erupted, flashing forward, each curving out towards Ranma, the stone floor crumbling beneath her feet. But even so, Ranma was unperturbed. Her feet slid around the mole-like eruptions in the floor as if she were skating on the earth itself. Widely, she dashed out and around him to his left. His eyes held her form, waiting for the attack.

Ryoga jerked in shock as an impacted to his right side threw him off balance. Looking down, he saw the redhead, her arm protruding from his right thorax, and small half grin on her face.

Ranma had a clone technique...!?

"One point, Ranma!" Nabiki exclaimed, as if her words were a blow as steadily aimed at him as Ranma's fists.

Ryoga hopped away, and instantly dove back in. A left punch that he was sure would land steadily on her sternum met with the air as the girl flashed away with speed untold. Still, Ryoga would not be stopped. He pressed the offensive, punching with attacks that should have destroyed the tiny girl before him. Each one she met stroke for stroke, some, landing solidly on the manacles that hummed and vibrated constantly on her wrists, or ankles, and many missing completely.

She attacked a bit, but Ryoga was surprised to find that he was fast enough to block, or even _dodge_ many of the girl's attacks. Before, Sometime a while after Ranma had mastered the Amaguriken, he had begun attacking with no punch that did not hold Amaguriken speed. Now they were practically slow, compared to the Ranma of old. But still he could get nothing through. She danced around his blows and blocked them, an uneasy grin of worry and subtle enjoyment on her face, while his strong arms were able to hold off every one of her attacks.

Which made no sense! He'd seen how unbelievably fast she'd moved at the beginning of this match! How was she not _destroying_ him?

He threw punches with more speed than her 'Amaguriken' of old, his own speed having long since crested that lofty mark, but she blocked them with double, and somehow, seemed to be completely on the defensive. Every hit she blocked or dodged, he was right there with another. Every swift kick, narrowly avoided by the turning of a check or the smallest step, was instantly replaced with yet another attack for the red-head to block.

Ryoga knew Ranma. Ranma was no pushover. Ranma held back till the last moment, right when he'd lulled his opponent into a false sense of security. But still no counter attack came. No mad flurry of punches to power through his defenses, as he expected. After a time he began to grow _irritated. _Neither he nor his speedy opponent were making any ground at all.

He threw another punch, that he was certain would miss, and was shocked to find her flashing body stop dead-right in the path of his punch.

Her eyes widened in surprise that seemed unfeigned as she weathered a powerful hit to the stomach.

"One point, Ryoga!" Nabiki shouted; now it seemed as if the middle Tendo were apologizing for giving a point to Ranma earlier.

Ryoga couldn't help but grin a little as he watched Ranma back away from him. She bounced on her feet lightly, and warily, he noticed her take a tiny sideways glance at Xian Pu again. At that, Ryoga felt his anger burn, but he held it down. Old Ryoga was what Ranma was expecting. Get pissed. Easy kill. No. He wouldn't do that. Not this time!

He couldn't help the small curse under his breath though. _"Damn you, Ranma..."_ He mouthed, and he could tell Ranma caught the words even if she hadn't heard them, but the sharp blink of surprise she gave.

He gave her no time to react.

At least doubling his earlier speed, he launched a barrage of attacks that would have had Ranma from two years ago _bawling_ with envy. His attacks outstripped even the fastest Amaguriken, and Ranma, even now, was hard pressed to keep up. Or... so he thought.

Ranma took it all in stride. Each attack was just as 'barely' deflected as before. Each jab, dodged with just as much difficulty. Each kick blocked just as they had been before! What the hell was going on!? Okay. This wasn't funny. She was going _easy _on him! Dammit all!

Anger burned and he bolstered his limbs with all the ki he had. "Damn you Ranm-!"

"LEAVE MAMA ALONE!"

Without warning, a small body barred the way between his flying fist and Ranma. Time seemed to slow as Ryoga's eyes widened in horror. A child had jumped in the way of his punch! A child! A Chi-

He hadn't even time to think before a flash of red obscured the small child from view. It seemed as if snakes wrapped around his arm faster than he could even believe. His arm twisted, and pain erupted in his spine. His _body_ lifted and the next thing he knew, he was flying across the room and slamming bodily into a stone wall! Pain erupted in his limbs and he winced at the loud 'Smack' that reverberated in his own ears of his body slapping against the wall.

"Illi you idiot girl! You scared me to death!" Ranma's voice echoed through Ryoga's mind wavily. He felt dizzy, and disoriented on a level that shouldn't be human. What...? What had happened? He couldn't even tell. One minute he was desperately trying to stop his own fist from impaling some unbelievably stupid child... and the next he was...?

"Wh-what happened?" He asked, dazedly. His head hurt... his _body _hurt everywhere.

"H-hey, who the hell is...?" Nabiki's voice, Ryoga thought.

"Did she just call you...?" Ukyo's? He couldn't...

"Ryoga!" Xian pu! Definitely... god... that hurt!

"Sorry buddy..." That was Ranma... at least Ryoga thought it was.

The words of Ryoga's friends rumbled together into a blur that made no sense at all. Dizzily, his eyes rolled, and the last thing he saw before unconsciousness took him was long, lavender hair.

* * *

Mousse watched Ranma sigh as she hugged the small child to herself again. He'd been quite enraptured with the fight, and felt a small measure of guilt for not having seen the child get in the way, or even enter the room for that matter.

Surprised and shocked indeed. He was not ashamed to admit that he had not been able to see Ranma move. One moment, the girl was standing, just as shocked as they, staring at the back of the young girl. The next second, Ranma was simply _'gone'. _No movement. No jerking motion. She simply disappeared from the spot she had stood within, and reappeared grasping Ryoga's arm and lobbing him bodily across the room.

That wasn't even the extent of the shock though! No! Now... Now his shock stemmed from Ranma himself. Her...self? God it was hard to see a man behind that. Hell, in his own conscious he didn't think he'd have it in him to attack her when it was his turn to spar... not having seen... _this._

Ranma hugged the girl, with a frightened nervous apprehension over her, and looked her over everywhere. Once. Twice. Three times. Like a mother who'd just watched her child fall out of a tree and spring back up without a scratch! All the while blathering about how worried she was! It was... _strange! _Ranma doted over the girl, and Mousse was shocked beyond anything to see _honest to god tears_ in the red-head's eyes. Ranma was... a mother?

Then, his... _her_ words actually filtered in, and Mousse couldn't manage to keep his jaw from silently dropping. "God, you scared me to death! Don't you ever do that again, you hear me, Illi? I swear I will never let you see the light of day--!"

"You told me you didn't haveta fight anymore!" The child screamed, her voice towering over Ranma's in the way only a child on the verge of tears could. "You promised! You... you promised!"

Ranma flinched back, and no wonder. Mousse would too, at those tiny, dark eyes, so painfully accusing in their glower.

"I... I... did promise. I... these... these are my friends, Illi. Remember the ones I told you about? That was... that is Ryoga." Ranma said, pointing as she turned the girl around to stare at the unconscious man, lying in the corner of the large room, Xian Pu huddled over him.

Slowly, Mousse turned his attention to the others. Most of them, Ranma's father and mother in particular, were gawking at their son-turned-daughter as she pampered the little six year old. The others, too, were quite unnerved by it, many with their jaws hanging just as slack as his own.

"Th-that's Ryoga!?!" The child, Illi, Mousse supposed, exclaimed with childish apprehension and giddiness. "But... I thought you said you were friends. Why was he trying to hurt you, Mama?"

Mousse shook himself as a silent revelation came over him. He realized, thankfully, that even the possibility that this girl was _actually_ Ranma's child was ludicrous. The girl was strongly Chinese, small, perhaps six, with deep black hair braided back in a fashion similar to Ranma's old pigtailed one. Ranma had only been missing for two years, so he couldn't possibly have fathered, or mothered, this little one.

Though, on second thought, Ranma's hand in the child's upbringing was quite plain. "Insanely brave...? Or just stupid...?" Mousse thought idly.

"It was just a spar, little one. Neither of us were going to really hurt the other... it was nothing like... nothing like that, okay?" Ranma said, soothingly. Abruptly, the red-head blinked, as if she only just now became aware of the jaws dropped all around her.

"I... Ahh... Everyone... this is Illi. Illi, this is everyone."

The hall was silent for a moment... and Mousse could practically 'feel' discomfort radiating off the two in the middle.

"Uhm... hello!" The small girl said, nervously.

It was like something had clicked, in all of them. And voice was given to them once more.

"How!? Ranma you're--!"

"Mama!? Ranchan, did I just hear this girl call you--!"

"Why boy!? Why in hell would you let this hap--!"

"WHEN!?"

The questions ran together in flurries, each piling atop the other, and none ever quite being answered.

Until Ranma held up her hand. A sharp flare of aura, and a tinge of terror jerked in Mousse's soul, as everyone was instantly silenced. She glared around the room a moment, as if daring anyone to speak. Mousse gave a small smile as he watched Ranma's father gulp a bit at her glare. The man really _was_ insufferable. He knew _that_ now, probably as well as Ranma did.

Ranma leaned down to the girl, who didn't appear to understand _why_ everyone had suddenly been silenced and whispered into her small ear. The girl smiled at whatever Ranma had said, and then dashed off out of the room. Stopping at the door, she turned and looked at Ranma, still kneeling on the floor. "Okay mama! But remember! You promised!"

The girl opened the door, and dashed out into the hallway.

"Keep your eye on her, if you would, Anya?" Ranma requested lightly.

Anya, who had never actually left the room, gave a slight bow. "Of course my lady. I assure you the servant who should have been watching her will be severely punished."

Ranma gave a small grin. "Go easy on whoever it was... Illi would have been fine. Her heart's in the right place... and hell, I can't keep _my _eye on her all the time. And if I can't, why should I expect someone else to be able to?"

Anya gave a small bow. "As you wish, Empress." With that, she turned and left the room.

How the martial artists of Nerima remained silent throughout the entire exchange, Mousse didn't know, but now they were. As the door closed behind Anya, Mousse could practically _feel_ the pins and needles everyone seemed to be standing on. Mousse himself could hardly wait. His eyes drifted over to Ryoga and he shivered. Ranma had not only knocked Ryoga unconscious but she had moved _into_ the way of a punch, mid stroke, grappled his arm, and lobbed him into the wall before anyone had seen her _move._

_'What in god's name has she been _doing_ these past few years?' _Mousse thought, almost apprehensively.

"So... I guess you all wanna know about this, too eh?"

A firm nod greeted her from all sides.

Mousse nodded too, but suddenly he realized Akane was directly across from him. For a moment, his eyes connected with hers. Shocked, he turned away, his eyes going angry, as memory resurfaced. How? How could the girl profess to love him, but not _tell_ him that she was going to have a baby? How could she do that to him?

Ugh...

Fortunately, Ranma's voice derailed Mousse's dismal thoughts. "Well... I've got to tell you a few things first before we get around to Illi. Where did I leave off? I think it was..."

**"...about two years ago."**

* * *

Ruby lay on her cot of straw, silently staring up at the ceiling. It was strange that. She'd been awake for almost seven hours now, and none had come to check on her. Well. Except Gimmer, but he didn't count. Coward of a man. Sure he had a good heart, and even a bit of strength behind his fist, but under the eyes of any above him, he was just as much a bastard as any of the other guards. No bravery to stand up for what he _knew_ was wrong.

At first she thought he might have been ordered to give salves out to prisoners. But now she'd learned that he did it of his own free will. He kept the prisoners alive. And for that, at least, Ruby had to be thankful. Without Gimmer, she would surely be dead, as would many of the prisoners here.

She didn't know his full story, but from what she'd gleaned through silent conversations whispered from cells down the way, he'd fallen in love with a prisoner in one of these cells once upon a time, many years ago. That prisoner had come to love him back just as dearly, through some twisted form of Stockholm's or something, but Gimmer had lost when he had challenged to take her.

Lost to a man who had killed her, not long after having taken her. After that, he'd become a shell of the man he'd been then. No fire. No drive. But he did have a solemn oath to protect the prisoners of this place. To do his best to make sure no other stories like his ever emerged.

Honestly, she felt a bit of pity for him.

He was the only one she would not kill.

"R-Ranm—!" Came Sage's voice once more.

"How many times, weakling?" Ruby interrupted harshly. "Ranma is dead, and _now_ you think to grow a backbone? Call me Ruby. The pet they wanted. It is all I am now."

She knew it made no sense to a coward like her. She knew that. It made no sense at all to her. She was taking the name they gave her and labeling herself with it, but acting just as Ranma had, but she didn't care. The woman was a fool. Commendable for at least having somewhat of a spine. But too late. Far too late… for Ranma anyway.

Sage shivered a bit, but Ruby was surprised when she noticed a slight firming of her jaw. The woman was gritting her teeth! Hah! Who knew that she was capable of such defiance!? Maybe she would be useful after all!

"Stop…" The woman breathed, barely able to summon for the words but doing it all the same. "…calling me…" They rose in pitch, the first bit of anger Ruby could ever remember seeing on that long-cowed face. "…_weak_!"

Ruby arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you?" She asked simply. "I see no escape plans for you. You don't do _anything! _You _are _weak!"

The woman bristled and threw her arms behind her, glaring daggers as she responded. "Shut up! Not everyone can live like you do! Not everyone has nothing left to lose!"

Ruby scoffed. What could this coward possibly have to lose? Her pride? She said as much, and was surprised when the woman clammed up sharply.

"I have… daughter…" Sage murmured. "Chell's youngest. This one was pregnant when was caught. They have her now… and if I obey… they won't kill her." Sage held back from saying "or me," but she couldn't stop herself from thinking it. Over time, torture had made her selfish… but she still had kept bits of her pride.

The last was almost a whisper but it was more than enough to bring Ruby up short. Children. They were a soft spot with her, as they should be with anyone, and she couldn't help the shocked expression that lit her features. These monsters could kill a child? A _child!? _ "H-hurt a…? How could they—!"

"You don't know _everything, _Ruby." Sage interrupted harshly, punctuating Ruby's name with a fierceness that was surprising even compared to before. "I can help you."

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Why would you risk that? What's changed?" Ruby asked. "I don't want to get a child killed."

Sage sighed, and sat down on her own hay cot. "I'm tired of this. My little girl is almost three years old now… It's been months since I've even seen a glimpse of her. I'm not sure if she even knows who I am. She's being raised a pet to Mallay, one of the torturers. I… I want to rescue my daughter. I want to be… _free."_

"Or die trying." Ruby intoned.

The woman's eyes locked with hers and she nodded. "Better that my daughter die than be raised to… to this. Better I die, than a day longer..."

Ruby smiled inwardly. Perhaps she was rubbing off on this woman. Perhaps… but she had to be sure. "Alright… if you really want to help me, tell me your name. You true name." Ruby stated calmly. A harsh demand she supposed, but still necessary. She would not call the woman Sage. Not if she wasn't acting like a puppy.

"I'm… This one is called Chell, Ruby." The woman replied, with surprisingly little hesitation melded into her mild voice. Still she couldn't help the wary glance toward the doors after using the name, which disappointed Ruby a bit; even so, she couldn't expect instant perfection.

So she gave a smile, a little one. As much as one could in this place. For a moment she grunted, and a trickle of sweat trailed down her brow, but she ignored it and kept straining her ki against her shackles as she had been since she had awoken hours ago. "Good to meet ya, Chell. For now, I'm Ruby."

The woman blinked at the light hearted tone, and the strange introduction. But she took it in stride. "Nice to meet you…?" It was almost a question. Still, it was enough to make Ruby chuckle.

The doors opened. And again, Ruby became stone.

* * *

Ruby was practically unconscious, but she felt good for it. Four of the six guards it had taken to pry her into submission, even without the enhancing power of her ki, were unconscious, and the two holding her now, were bruised and battered.

It didn't make her feel good at all to know that the four she had humbled were unable to harness their ki any stronger than perhaps Akane. But still. Six on one, she thought she'd done as well as she could. Regardless, that wasn't her anymore. It didn't matter if they won a battle against her. It didn't matter if they were able to take her every time. That wasn't the way she was fighting. Not anymore.

She hung over one's shoulder, lacking the strength to truly struggle anymore, but still her fists pounded lightly against the man's back. Her ki still strained against the manacles just as strongly as they had before, and she felt them swelling under the strain of holding her power at bay. Two of them at least… if she tried to attack more than that, her barrage against them would be as weak throwing straw at a stone wall. But she would grow. Already she felt her ki begin to grow and simmer. If the manacles were removed even now, she knew her ki would be multiples larger than it had been before her capture.

"Still nothing on Herb." She grumbled to herself, recalling that the only way she'd even managed to hurt the dragon prince was her unpredictability, and a whole lot of luck.

She was in pain, but she didn't let it touch her. The Soul of Ice, the technique she thought might have been partially responsible for bringing her out of her madness induced dreams, wrapped around her as surely as her ki flowed just under her skin, and the pain she was in seemed… distant. Far. She still knew it was there, but she held herself aloof, as if watching another who held her pain instead of herself.

'Can this hold…? Can it stand up to… to _that?' _She thought, worriedly, her memory briefly recalling that horrid experience. Bars lodged into her skin, and that potion… that _poison_ that made pain tenfold. But it had to. There was nothing for it. It had to hold. And if it didn't, she would come back again.

It made her happy to know that the Musk, guards and torturers alike, were beginning to fear her. Or perhaps awe her. The guards came in ever larger groups when they fetched her to bring to the tormentors like Borage and Veter. Salaish, and his giant fetish with ropes and strangling her till she was on the very brink of death. Teclupis, was the same, only he preferred to half drown her instead of strangle. Flidik the most timid among them, who preferred the shock on her face from an instant sharp pain, like stabbing her in the arm with a dagger, or the like.

So many others who's name's she couldn't remember. All fell short of the torment Borage could inflict on her. The thought itself acted as a summons as the ground shook, and she recognized that as the sound of Borage's approach.

"There's my little Ruby…" The giant of a moaned. It sounded like a boulder purring. "So good to see you my pet! I was beginning to think Father was going to keep me forever! I'm sorry I made you wait so long."

Ruby grumbled as she felt herself passed from one set of arms to another. He draped her over his shoulder, the great pauldron spike making an irritatingly comfortable nook, probably intentional to ease his carrying of women. That and the intimidation it always lent him.

She couldn't help but shudder, but still she glared up at him, from her hanging position.

'Father…?' She thought, blearily. 'This man has a _father?_ I didn't think him human enough… Though I guess they do call him a prince.'

"So… still defiant, eh? Well, I will say one thing for you, little gem; you've got courage. But what Marjoram did to you wasn't the worst we can do. You'll come around." He state gruffly, his grin sly.

Ruby shuddered again. Was she ready for this? Yes… she had to be. Only one more bit of information! Just one more and she could get her revenge! She just had to find.

"Drop her Borage." Came a young voice. One Ruby was familiar with. She glowered, and lifted her head to stare at the person who had condemned her to this. Her anger rose in spikes as he came into view. Herb of the Musk. The Dragon Prince.

She could practically _feel_ her eyes glowing with hatred.

Not that they hadn't been already. Borage already sparked anger in her enough to light forest fires. And she thought Marjoram might as well… but… Marjoram _scared_ her. Well and truly. And she was only barely ashamed to admit it.

'_He takes the ones Borage can't break? What kind of monster is he?' _She thought grimly. But it didn't matter. She would be one of those Borage couldn't break. And… if she wasn't? If she couldn't take it anymore? She would break. She would love him. She would do everything he asked!

And then she would drive a metal pole into his throat.

But of course, that was only if her plan failed. All she needed was to know where he slept. That was all. Then she could have her revenge.

"H-Herb…" Borage uttered. "I… Why should I? You're _highness?" _The man mocked, but it was plain to Ruby that Borage was a bit afraid. Borage was maybe a bit stronger than she had been... before… Herb was ten times that.

"I said _drop her_ Borage." Herb repeated, his voice cold and dangerous as Ruby remembered it. There was a hint of something else imbedded within… anger, if she didn't miss her guess, but she could be mistaken.

"Hmph." Borage sniffed. "Not happy with that phoenix, Father engaged you to, Herb? Pff. Fine. She'd better be in good shape when I come back for her, or I'll be angry."

Without warning, Ruby plummeted to the ground, only saving herself from smashing her head into the hard stone below because of her years of quick reflexes and knowledge of falls. Even so, her landing was by no means graceful, but it left her staring at Herb. Not a place to show her pain. She would kill this man too. She was certain.

Herb raised a mere eyebrow, and Ruby couldn't help the small satisfaction as Borage almost stammered while he excused himself. Borage _was_ a weakling. She was certain… if it weren't for these damn manacles!

The guards who had been carrying her were already departed, leaving her alone on her back, staring up at the man who had betrayed her. The man whose life she had saved, and he had repaid her with chains and whips and rape.

And _now_ he looked… _uneasy. _

Silence hovered in the air between them like a barrier. Ruby wanted to spit in his face… but there was something wrong. Guilt wracked his features, hard though they may be, and his ill-ease became more apparent by the second. He wanted to say something, and Rubies eyebrows rose as realization struck her. He wanted to apologize…!? He actually wanted… had the _nerve _to…!?

"Can you stand?" He asked, his tone stoic, but his expression belying that.

As an answer, Ruby got to her feet, slipped and fell, and tried to stand again.

"Follow me." He told her, his voice calm, still belying the unease painted across his face.

At first shock had held her tongue. Held back even her anger. But those two words brought her back in full. This man was the reason for her captivity! It was _his_ fault she was stuck here! Anger, unlike anything she could remembered welled in her, and her eyes burned with fury. "_Fuck _y_ou…!" _She hissed. "I'll… _kill you…!" _

Herb said nothing, standing there with the slightest hint of guilt on his features. Then he turned his back to her. Turned his _back! _"Come with me. Or would you prefer to go with Borage…?" He questioned.

Ruby could barely think… It was all she could do not to attack him outright. But Borage's name held her. She… didn't want to go with him. No… she didn't want that at all.

Herb began walking, and she was given little choice but to follow. Weakly pulling herself to her feet, her bones aching, she stood, and limped after him, gaining vitality with each step. She would kill him… she would _kill him!_

She shivered at the door he led her too. She knew the door well, but she didn't let it show. "Oh… I see. Want me to yourself eh…? You bastard…" She stated, backing up and falling into a fighting stance.

Herb… _sighed? _Then he looked both ways down the three hallways conjoined at the entrance to the torture chambers. Then, with a speed she could only scarcely believe, he grappled her hands, and dragged her into the room.

"G-God damn you Herb! You—!" Ruby screamed as she was manhandled, but as soon as the door banged shut behind Herb, she found her arms free again.

"Silence!" Herb blasted… then followed, "…er… I mean… hear me out."

Ruby blinked. He'd gotten her silence. She wanted to scream in fear for powerful he was. Even without the ability to put her own ki to use, she could still feel his. His reserves seemed like mountains. The man made Borage seem a bug. Made _her _seem a termite.

'Ranma faced him and won. Ranma _won._ And you're stronger than he was, Ruby.' She told herself, vainly, while staring at him with eyes that could view his hidden power; it was like staring at the sun. Yet he stood as if he were unsure of himself. Guilt painting his features.

It was this… this son of a bitch… it was _his fault _she was here! He turned her into… into this! He had no right to stand there now, looking guilty! He should _die!_ He destroyed her… it was… _aaghh!_

Moving as fast as she could she flashed behind him. The room was small, with a stone table in the center and several tables filled with all sorts of torturous instruments. Like fire she grasped a blade and aimed to plunge it into the bastard's heart. He would die… he deserved to die! Guilt or no!

He stood there and raised an eyebrow as the blade snapped against his skin.

Their eyes met, and Ruby couldn't help but gulp.

Her arms whirled like buzzsaws, flinging knives, scythes hatchets… anything that could imbed into his skin and make him bleed. Make him pay for what he did to her! Make him _die!_

He didn't block a damn one…! Not a damn one!

Each thrown weapon bounced off his skin where it landed, like reflecting off a wall of diamond, clattering to the floor loudly, as if to punctuate her inability to do _anything_.

"Y-You… How could you…! Why would you…! Damnit, why won't you die!? You should _die!_" She screamed at him, and chucked more weapons. Each blade aimed true… each too weak to even touch him. "I beat you dammit! I won! I… I won…"

Her breath was ragged. Great gulps of air filled her as she stood, staring at his guilt filled eyes. Overwhelmed with emotion, she sagged to her knees, tears falling down her cheeks. Maybe… maybe she wasn't as strong as she'd thought.

Long the silence held, only counter by the sobs she couldn't hold back.

"I'm sorry."

The words seemed… anticlimactic to Ruby. They seemed like… cheating. It didn't help that she couldn't yell at him. Couldn't scream at the injustice of his 'apology' while knowing that he could kill her with a thought.

So she wept.

"I… there is little that I can say that could make up for… _this_." He said, his tone dispassionate, but his expression now bloated with guilt as he watched her. "So, I'll do the only thing that I can. Keep you from being tortured... as often as possible."

That only served to anger her more than ever. He could have prevented her from ever feeling such pain. Such suffering. She couldn't help but glare daggers at him; she could barely see him through the tears blocking her vision. "I hate you…!" She screamed. "I _hate you!"_

Herb nodded his head. "I know."

Herb would have asked Ruby if she could scream… to fool anyone who might be listening, but her weeping was more hurtful than ten thousand screams. The sound was the kind that made him wish to slit his own throat.

Ruby wept till her throat went dry… and she didn't even put up a fight, hours later, when he scooped her up, and slung her over his shoulder, only to pass her on to another soldier harshly to carry her back to her cell. She wanted to kill him. She want to see him dead so much that it _burned_!

But… it was so hopeless. The others… even Borage_ felt_ it when she hit him. But… Herb…?

She supposed she should be thankful. Inside she knew that he could do _anything_ to her. And even her plan wouldn't work on him. It would only make him laugh. The only reason it _might_ work on Borage was because he was _weak!_

_That_ hurt as much as Borage ever could.

She remembered once thinking that Borage was as strong as she without the manacles. That was when she had been knew to them, and not understood just how truly weak they made her. Not understood how they worked.

She still didn't know everything… but she'd learned much from her discovery.

The guard, a portly many whom she knew she had battered before, seemed downright shocked at her. It was the first time he'd seen the infamous Ruby _not_ fighting tooth and nail. He carried her with a wariness, as if she was going to spring and batter him in the ribs, or stomach, or worse.

She was too stricken with despair to care. Sure she might be able to get her revenge… but she doubted she would escape.

"Ruby…?" Chell questioned, noting the dry sobs flowing out from the girl. She was more shocked that Ruby was not only awake, but apparently unharmed.

"I… Am fine… Chell." She replied though strangled rasps. "I am fine."

"What… what happened?" The woman questioned, clinging her hands to the bars staring across towards Ruby's cell.

"I… It doesn't matter…" She heaved, before most of her calm finally returned to her. Anger and hatred would get her nowhere. Only cold calculation. If Chell knew the answer to the question she'd not had enough time to ask before, then tonight would be the night. Borage would die. Tonight was the night.

Slowly she dug under the hayloft for the most precious thing she had ever found. One manacle lay there, hidden as deeply as it could be. An unlocked manacle.

Not one of her own but ever since she'd found it, haphazardly left within one of the large cracks in the lower stonework of the wall, she'd treasured it. Experimented with it. And tonight would be the night… if only…

"Chell… I need to know one thing. One thing, and I can carry out my plan. No. Two things. First, do you know where Borage sleeps at night? I know that it will be dark within the next two or three hours. I mean to see that bastard dead in the next four.

Chell's eyes widened, and only kept growing wider as she arose, showing of the gleaming manacle to the girl across the room.

"Y-Yes… I could lead you straight to it…" She replied, and Ruby could feel the terrified excitement rising within the girl's stomach.

"You are certain!?" Ruby demanded sharply. "Absolutely certain?"

Chell nodded. "When I… I was taken by him once. I know where he sleeps. It is here. He is master of the Kennels." She paused for a moment, looking apprehensive, yet also there was a… greedy look in her eyes. Ruby imagined hers were much the same though. "A-… And the other?" Chell intoned.

Ruby grinned, and wiped the last watery bits from her eyes. "What is your daughter's name?" Suddenly, she clamped the manacle around her left wrist, and Chell's eyes shot up as her jaw hung, gaping.

"What are you--!?" She began, shocked, watching the seams on the manacle as they seemed to disappear, becoming a solid silver ring, seemingly unbreakable, just as the others. Ruby grinned, and held out her arm, the three manacles hanging there, feeling the strain of her ki against the manacles double as the ninth shackle joined the others in holding back her ki. Then, she tapped it, and it sprung loose, flopping to the ground. It seemed, only the person who put the manacle on, was able to take it off. This one fell off at a touch.

Either that, or it was broken. She had considered that but there were ways around it. Her plan included more than one manacle.

"This is my plan." She stated, watching the old woman in the cell next to Chell. "And so it begins."

"You fool!" Came the bursting voice of the elderly woman, just as expected. "You are a complete fool! You will get us all killed! You will—!"

The woman's cries cut off in a sharp gurgle, one of Ruby's four poles, imbedded in the old woman's throat.

"God how I've longed to do that…" Ruby stated, knowing that others would have to die for this plan to work. Eika most assuredly. Tetru. Aiuke. They were loyal watchdogs, perfectly obedient to the guards and torturers of this place. The only reason they were here was because none of the guards had any inclination to take women such as… _those. _Those women actually _enjoyed_ their confinement. They were so far into madness that they no longer seemed to remember that they once had their own names. Their own families. Who knew? Maybe they had never had any. But Ruby knew any of these would run and tell the guards as soon as she knew of it.

Fortunately, this was a place of dissention. Those confined here, hated their captors, and wanted to fight with every breath they had.

Chell's eyeballs were practically out of her sockets.

"I am Ruby. I will play the pet they wanted, right up until I slit their throats. That stands for anyone who gets in my way." She stated coldly, her earlier doubts forgotten. Herb may be a mountain of strength that she might never be able to get around. But tonight, whether she escaped or not, Borage would be dead. It was Borage who had tortured her. And Borage who would pay.

Inside, the remains of what was once Ranma, flinched at the death of the old woman. She'd never given a name. Not the name they had given her. Nothing. But Ruby had to be harder than Ranma had ever dreamed of being. Ruby had to bring down an empire.

Slowly, Chell's eyes dropped from their shocked stare. And just as slowly, the green-haired woman began to grin. "My daughter's name is Illi."

Ruby smiled. "If you find her before we escape, I will be glad to meet her. Now. Here's what I want you to do."

Chell listened intently.

* * *

"Wh-What the… What the he—!" Kadred, one of the weak ones exclaimed, staring down at the dead old woman, just before Ruby launched one of her four poles. A direct hit, and the man slumped over, the deadly spiked point imbedded in his neck, gurgling only once or twice before death took him.

Chell watched Ruby work with amazement as the girl reached through the bars and dragged the man over to her, taking the ring of keys off of his belt and unlocking her door all so swiftly, as to seem that she'd done the like before!

"One down… hundreds to go." Chell heard the red-head murmur lowly. The girl walked out without pause, and sighed, relieved to see the outer door closed. One guard always stood at the entrance, and feeding times were no exception.

Picking up and slurping on her soup, Ranma stepped over Kadred's body hastily, moving not to Chell's cell, but to the old woman's. The two iron keys were rusted and old, like something out of medieval stories, one for the cells, and one for the door at the end of the corridor.

The manacles were the real cells. The doors hardly mattered to the Musk.

Quickly ducking into the old woman's cell, dragging Kadred's body with her, she stood over the old woman, and collected her poles. Then, with satisfaction, she also collected three manacles, fallen at the point of death from the woman's left arm.

That made four. More than enough to subdue Borage, but she would need more. The guards, those that could use their ki to a degree strong enough to block her attacks without even think about it, would need to be hindered by the use of these manacles.

Those keeping the traitors locked in here would do perfectly.

Luckily, there were no other prisoners in the cells beyond. Some had come and been thrown back there, but most of them were collared and taken quickly. Women taken by the Musk were almost always beautiful. Either that, or powerful. And the men were polygamous.

Bastards.

More silent then the quietest mouse, Ruby was flowing out of the cell. The dead woman was buried beneath the straw. The guard's head, she'd stuffed down the latrine hole, before burying him in the hay that remained.

Instantly, she was unlocking Chell's cell.

"We have to do this quietly, and we can't afford mistakes. If you see Marjoram or Borage… or… or Herb, Run." Ruby stated, matter-of-factly. "I don't think he is, but these are the hours that Borage has –never- come to the Kennels. So I think this is when he's most likely to be sleeping."

Chell seemed to glare and stutter simultaneously, symbolizing both her anxiety and returning backbone. Not to mention her steadily increasing talent for the Japanese language. "I… I know! No need t-to tell me again!"

Ruby let the woman out, and instantly, was at the cage of the next woman. Ikem, she was called, from the village of the Leath, many miles to the North. She gasped at sight of the Ruby, just now finishing her meager portion of the sickening red-tinted porridge. "We're breaking out." Ruby stated plainly. Right on top of her, Chell spoke the same words in spitfire Mandarin.

Ruby had never been more glad that almost no one in this place spoke her language. None could overhear what they couldn't understand. It was odd to her, how the Musk seemed to be fluent at it, but that didn't' matter now.

Ikem's black eyes lit with a joyous glee as Chell spoke, her hair seeming to glimmer as hope bloomed in her features. A massive break out. Not everyone would escape, but the more that were running, the more likely each was to make it free of this hellish place. Ikem quickly agreed. As did Eillen. Akaike. Tia. Sakuna. Each of them growing great smiles as their numbers increased.

One by one.

"Who are you?" Some asked in broken Japanese. To which she had answered simply, "Ruby."

Their shocked surprise had been unexpected. It seemed everyone knew the name. Ruby. Ruby who defied Borage! Ruby who had been caught by the Prince of Dragons himself! Ruby

"Thank you! Oh light, I didn't know how much more I could take!"

"Ruby! She is really Ruby!? I thought Gimmer made her up!"

"Bless you! Bless you!"

Most of it, Ruby could only barely understand with her dim grasp of Mandarin, but what she could, she answered in whispers. They weren't safe yet. And they had to know it.

"_M-Master_!" Eika exclaimed the instant she saw the group. "M-MA—!" Her cries were cut off in the same way as the Kadred's and the old woman's. Right on top of that, Ruby sent another pole, flying straight through Tetru's cell's bars. She cursed, realizing she had missed but instantly she threw another, and this one flew true. Without her ki, even throwing was much more difficult.

Two more manacles. That made six. And one more traitor to kill. Aiuke. That should be seven. All of them had been weaklings. Still, that gave her seven. Almost as many as she had on herself.

The shocked eyes of those behind her only lasted the moments it took for her to pull the open manacles off the corpses of their previous cell-mates. That, and retrieve the poles. Then Ruby returned to the cells she had skipped in getting to Eika's and began unlocking.

It was not long before she had an army of almost sixty behind her. Approaching the door, she noticed the eyes of the next girl about to shout for the guards and silenced her before she could speak. Aiuke dead. And seven manacles. Seven.

The rooms outside the cell block held hundreds of manacles, but she was not certain if the guards would have access to them. So until she managed to kill the guard on the other side of the door, she had to work on the assumption that she could not. Still, seven was a good number. Eight held her power at bay. That meant seven could probably hold down any save for the _most _powerful. Borage, easily.

"Kadred?" Came a shout from the other side of the door, to her great luck, only moments after she unlocked the last cell. Chell was still talking in a hasty Mandarin but the woman was already behind Ruby, crowded with the others.

Still, Ruby shivered. It was either Veter or Rallum. Both were strong. Strong enough to withstand catch a throw not backed up by ki. Likely it was Rallum. Veter was a torturer. Rallum a guard, but their voices were very similar.

The door began jiggling and the latch pulled down. Ruby stood beside it, her back tight against cell bars. Her army froze in stark terror, and Chell's whispering halted in an instant. Now was the moment of truth. If this didn't work, then her plan would be shot to hell, and likely all of them would die.

The door flung open.

For a moment, Rallum stood there, in shock as light filtered in to shine on the group of prisoners.

Ruby dove. Like lightning two of the manacles were fastened securely around his ankles, their seams disappearing as if they had never been.

Chell held one of Ruby's poles, poised to throw. The man hadn't even noticed Ruby at his feet!

He laughed, then. "Hah! Go ahead girl! Throw! Give me your best—!"

Ruby obliged. Rallum only had a second to stare in shocked surprise as his ki failed to ward off the projectile. It stabbed his heart and he screamed, like mad.

Ruby jumped to her feet, catching the man and stabbing his throat with one of her remaining three poles, to cut off the sound.

Poking her head out of the cell block she looked about frantically.

No one left. No one right.

She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and was unsurprised to hear herself echoed by every woman behind her. Most were dark haired. Some with deep blue. One had hair that flamed as red as her own. But every one of them looked stronger with each passing minute. Hope giving them the strength to defy their masters.

They were women of ages from fifty all the way down to fourteen. Maybe even younger. It fueled her anger ever more, and that was what she needed. Her manacles began to thrum with the power her ki exuded, trying desperately to fill her limbs with their strength, but instead remaining bottled within her core.

Old and the young, they all had one thing in common. Hope. Their eyes filled with joy and stared wonderingly at Ruby. The one who'd come to rescue them.

Escape. Escape was finally upon them. They listened avidly to Chell as she explained her plan, and Ruby was thankful for the girl, only now realizing that her plan might have failed without her, just because of her weak grasp of the language.

'Damn me for an idiot,' She thought, but it was too late to worry now. She hoped she could depend on Chell.

This was where it got hard.

She watched as the manacles popped free and clattered lightly to the floor while the guard took his last breaths.

"May you rot in hell." Ruby breathed, as she got to her feet.

"Alright. You all know what to do, yes? From here on out its rough, but the more we get free, the more likely it will be that you can escape." Ruby said plainly. Chell translated. 'Bless _her!' _Ruby thought, still bitter at her stupidity.

She stripped the guard of his clothing and donned it, tucking her shimmering hair into the man's runic helmet, disguising herself heavily. Then she took his precious key, and gave it to Chell. All she had to do now was approach a guard, clamp a manacle around his wrist, and shove a pole in his throat. It should be easy…

She gulped with the first fringes of doubt. No. She'd make it. She _had_ to.

The captives followed her just to the right end of the hallway, where the two rooms she had to visit were situated.

One was close. Not a few paces down the hallway stood a locked door. Jamming the second key into the doors large keyhole, she turned and was disappointed to find that the lock did not budge. Trying the other key, she found the same. Taking Chell's back she tried them as well, to the same result. No luck. She wouldn't be able to give everyone a manacle then. She would have to do it herself.

Or… maybe not.

"Who among you is brave enough to hunt the guards with me? Who among you will take these manacles and chain the Musk with their own weapons? Who can end lives without flinching?" She asked calmly, though her voice taking in a leaders speech. Or at least what she thought a leader would sound like. In her head, she thought her voice was cardboard. "Who?"

Chell translated and Ruby was surprised when half of them stepped forward, silently ready to kill their captors. But with only seven manacles, four people would be enough. She hoped.

She gave two of her seven shackles to Chell along with one of her four poles. Two more to a middle aged woman named Ainisa who had a martial artist's way about her and another pole. And a final manacle and pole to Wyn Decs. She was a young girl but seemed almost as full of fury as Ruby herself was. She also had been an Amazon, though she and Chell did not know each other, both being from different villages.

That had been a surprise to Ranma. To learn that there were, in fact, three Amazon villages, though Joketsuzoku was the largest.

She peeked around the corner warily, and saw one solitary guard standing right in front of the door leading to a kennel. Turning her eyes the other way, she found the hall only continued a short distance before ending abruptly, with three doors on the left, right, and back of the hallway. Three more kennels. Four if she included the one behind the guard the other way.

Torches lit the hallways and moonlight flitted in through narrow stone windows, practically little more than arrow slits, dotting the walls. She moved to one and looked out. Another sigh of relief came to her. She was on the bottom floor of this facility. Even so, it was built on the edge of a mountain and this particular window viewed down across the Musk valley. Far below a monstrous city, filled with a multitude of single floor houses, all made with stone slabs and mortar, and thatch roofs. As many again tents lay to the north all surrounding one large building that looked almost a fortress. Though she'd never before seen it, Ruby knew that building to be the Barracks. There were seven of those buildings, but from here she could only see two, and just as many tents surrounded the next one as the last. Each one housed thousands of soldiers, all trained in the art of using their ki.

All for the war. The war with which they planned to dominate China.

Still further in the distance, atop a mountain far higher than the one upon which she stood, lay a gleaming spire. The Tower of Ceira. The last Queen of the Musk, who cursed her people with her death, so that no Musk child would ever be female.

Or at least, that was how the story went. The bits she'd heard and pieced together anyway.

She shook her head. She needed to concentrate. To the west lay the woods. Close, and the terrain was not too terrible for runaway slaves. A thousand could escape there, and they would never hope to catch them.

Unfortunately, Ranma couldn't see what was beyond the mountain in the distance. But the people would escape within those woods. They would go around it, or they would go over it, but somehow they would have to maneuver the thing.

If they escaped.

Turning, she gave one last look at her small army. She took a deep breath, and rounded the corner.

The guard spotted her instantly, but said nothing.

Walking slowly, she approached him. He didn't move until she was no more than a few feet from him, when he suddenly stated in a bland, bored tone, "Is all well with the night, brother?"

He wasn't even looking at her! What luck!

She walked a few steps closer and his view turned. "Bro—!"

Ruby's arm flashed, clapping the manacle around his bared wrist. Her other arm flashed but he was fast enough. His arm caught hers, and for a moment fear spiked within her as he bore her against the wall. Thinking on her feet, she tossed the pole to her free hand and swung, again aiming for his throat.

The man grinned, expecting the point to stop dead at his neck, not even noticing the manacle, until the pole ran him through his throat.

Staring through the helmet into eyes, wide with horror and death, Ruby couldn't help but slump back, breathing in joy. So close… another instant and he might have…

In death, the manacle clicked off, and she sighed, slumped against the wall, breathing heavily.

Chell appeared at the other end of the hall, and as soon as she saw the results, plunged ahead, followed by the army of freed captives.

"Alright!" Chell cried, happily.

"We aren't done yet. Chell, you, go to one of the Kennels on that end of the hall. Wyn Decs. Ainisa. Take this key, and you take another one. Free them all. Kill anyone who shouts." She said. The Ranma within her wailed, and it hurt her to say words so hard. It hurt them as well it seemed. Chell was shocked and Wyn Decs looked as if she were hesitating. She _had to be hard!_

"If we are found now, we'll all be slaughtered!" She exclaimed. "You must make sure that doesn't happen! Okay. Ten of you with me. The others, stay in groups. Make sure you stay in the cell blocks. We can't be caught out in the hallways."

Chell translated, but Ruby was afraid the effect might not be getting across to them. Still, this was the best that could be done. It would have to do.

She turned, taking what she considered the most dangerous Kennel. The one right near the next turn in the hallway. Ten followed after her. The rest entered quickly into the other rooms.

Shocked gasps followed upon entering, to a scene incredibly similar to the one she'd just left. Bracing herself, she waited for the outburst of a traitor. One of the ones who'd been corrupted by their own slavery. None came.

"My name is Ruby." She stated plainly. "I'm here to rescue you."

They looked at her blankly, and she sighed. "I'm going to try to help you escape. Every one of you!"

Without warning, a voice crept in over hers, in sharp Mandarin tones, but not Chell's. Ruby's eyes jerked three cells down and to the left to see a young girl with dark hair and shimmering brown eyes. Ruby smiled. "You understand?" She asked.

The girl nodded, and Ranma strode to the cell, unlocking it quickly.

"What's your name, girl?" Ruby asked pointedly. The girl was no older than sixteen. Maybe a bit younger.

Smiling back up, first at Ruby, then the ten behind her, the girl seemed about to burst with tears. "I… I'm Lao Min! Th-thank you for coming. I'll help you translate… if you like?"

'Could things possibly be going better?' Was Ruby's next thought. Instantly, she began unlocking cells. "I'd love that."

* * *

"ESCAPE!" Came a deep rumble. "ESCAPE! The Prisoners are escaping! The Prisoner's are—!"

Ruby's pole flashed like an arrow, cutting off the man with her twenty third kill that night.

Moments later, a gong sounded. Time was up. Those that had a chance, now had no choice but to flee. All except her.

"_RUN!" _She exclaimed. Then right on top of her, she heard another voice. And another. All of them shouting. Run! Run! Dwindling and rising. Run! All shouting. The hundreds of women behind her all darted as fast as they could. Standing behind a pillar so as not to be trampled she gestured them. They had to move! They had to move!

"That way! Go! The exit is near! Go! _Go!" _She boomed, her voice rising above the din of panic and the flailing parade of limbs. Ruby shuddered. Some would be trampled in that panic…

It seemed to take _years_ before the narrow, dim halls cleared of flailing people, and Ruby was happy to find only a few dead bodies, trampled beneath the stampede.

Now… her revenge.

Slowly, she crept her way through the rooms, following the directions Chell had give her. Following. A corner. Another corner, and she found herself facing a staircase, lit only by a single torch halfway up. Slowly, she climbed and took the torch upon reaching it.

At the top, another hallway lay, and three doors.

'Three forks. Three left turns. Then straight ahead. You can't miss it.' Ranma remembered. Chell had told her the way, and Ruby believed her. Her gut was rising to her stomach and her hackles seemed to rise with each ascending step. She grasped the handrail, and stopped just to keep herself from shivering.

"Calm down Ruby." She told herself. "Concentrate. You'll make a mistake if you don't!"

How much luck had she had tonight? How many close calls? And by the end she'd saved more than _double_ the prisoners she'd hoped to free! God, if Chell and the others were as successful as she before the alarm was raised…? Maybe they'd managed to empty this filthy place!

A wild hope. She turned her mind to her target.

'All I need is a bit more luck…' She thought grimly. 'What are the chances he's still asleep? I wanted to do this before the alarm was sounded… but there were so many… I couldn't just leave them!'

Slowly, she took the first left. A long hallway. Barren. It held no torches, no windows. It would have been pitch black without the torch in her hands, and she was suddenly glad she'd brought the thing.

The second left was a hallway just the same, with a doorway on the right. Not her target.

Holding her fire back, as she had for the previous two, she peaked around the corner, when it became apparent that a dim light was spilling over from the next corner.

A majestic entry way, lay lit by ten torches. Two guards stood affront. The door. Ranma grinned. More luck. She flicked her now red pole, and smiled as it practically floated through Einu's throat. Einu. Another weakling of a guard, and a particularly vicious one at that. She felt almost no remorse at killing him.

The other guard turned, surprised at Einu's sudden fall, and the gagging noises spewing from his soon-to-be-dead partner. The fool. He turned his eyes away. Bad idea.

Sliding around the corner she dashed up to the other man, his name she didn't know, and instantly wrapped a manacle around his wrist followed instantly by a second manacle at the same wrist. Shocked, he swiped at her. But he had no ki, and she had more skill than anyone alive. She batted the fist away effortlessly, plucked the pole from Einu's throat and plunged it into this man through the opening in the armor's side, making sure to puncture his heart. He screamed, but a strong kick from her hijacked soldier's boot, changed several times till she'd found a pair that fit, silenced his lips forever.

Then there was only her, the corpses, and the entrance to the beast's chambers.

Three pronged stocks held two torches in front of exquisite gongs that looked as if they'd never been meant for actual use.

Blade hung on the walls of the grand entryway but they were not what drew Ruby's eye. Shelves lined the halls, now that she had a moment to look at them, and… _things_ rested on them. A finger here. An eye there. All of these body parts lay on these shelves in glass jars, illuminated by the glow of water keeping it preserved. Some of them anyway.

An ear. A hand. Another eye. Two eyes.

It did nothing but reaffirm just how much this man needed killing.

As silent as possible, she opened the tall doors, crafted of thick wood in sharp contrast to the stone all around. Even so, the wood was probably the stronger, so rich was its quality.

A vast chamber with a ceiling facing the sky lay within, and high above, a window from which one could view the stars, which sent their shimmery glow down to illuminate the room. Hundreds more jars lined the walls, but they were larger, and contained bigger trophies. Heads.

This man was an abomination!

And there he lay, atop an ornate wooded bed, carved as fine as diamonds, snoring away.

Ruby wanted to laugh.

She walked up the two steps to the bed, lying in the very center of the room. Grand was the only way the bed, the stairs, everything about the room, could be described. Grand, and diabolic.

The bed posts held demonic gargoyle's sculpted into the wood and the stone walls, holding up the many shelves, seemed lined with bones and the murals of bones.

A snore, the sound of a pig choking, rose with the height of the blankets lying on the gigantic bed.

Approaching, Ruby moved more quietly than she ever head, barely daring to breath, or even think, for fear it would wake the monster. She only had one chance!

Slowly… slowly… Clip!

The first manacle fastened around his wrist and lost its seam simply. And Ranma wanted to laugh. Much easier now, she clipped another around the man's bare arms. Another. Then she walked to the other side of the bed. No longer fearful, she clipped another. Hah! The man just kept snoring! She would kill him. Heh heh. She didn't even need the manacles!

Whipping the blankets off the monster, she laughed at his shiver. Even so, he still did not wake.

Two more, and the man had as many shackles as she. Three on each arm. One for each leg. That was the last Ranma carried, having given the rest to the retreating captives.

Leaning down, she whispered in his ear. "Oh Boraaaage…!" She cooed.

The man blinked. "Oh Bor_aaaage!" _Her voice grew louder. More hateful. Using one of the weapons lining his wall, she slashed a Ruby hilted dagger, fitting she'd thought, across the man's face, straight through his eyes.

His yelp of horror and absolute pain as he jerked upright startled her, but she was surprised to find real genuine pleasure bubbling up from this man… this demon's screams.

"Hello Borage…" She said, a snake hissing at a now blinded fox. "How are you feeling?" She cooed once more.

"Y-You! Wh-what's going on! You little bit—!" The feel of cold steel pressing up against his neck silenced him and she pushed him down to the bed on his back, climbing atop him and his massive bulk.

"N-No!" He exclaimed. "No! _Take them off! T-Take them--!" _He jerked his lips closed as she pressed the dagger closer to his throat, drawing blood with the sharp end of the blade.

"How do you like having the table's turned Borage…? Is it fun? Do you enjoy being my bitch? Well… I'm going to make you scream… just… like… me…"

Closing her hand around his throat, he instantly grasped her arms, flailing uselessly. Without his ki, _she_ was the stronger. By _far. _And then she spun on his stomach… and pulled his underwear down.

"N-No… no you c-… you c—!"

A single slice of the dagger. And Borage howled. He howled so loud that Ruby could only barely hear herself laughing in hysteria.

* * *

Chell wiped sweat off her brow. She didn't know how many cell's she had opened. Two guards had fallen to her, and four kennels opened and ransacked of captives. The number of manacles had multiplied and by some sort of miracle, no alarm had yet been raised.

It had been a long time since she had seen Ruby, but that was part of the plan. Each soldier killed was another who could disguise themselves, approach, and kill yet another. Thus providing another set of keys. Another uniform of plated mail. Only once had she been forced to quell a hateful argument between two women, both desperately fighting for the armor. She hadn't liked the way she'd been forced to end it. Neither woman was alive.

But she put that behind her. She was going to escape. She was _going_ to escape! Freedom! Finally. Finally she'd be able to go home, and see her little Xian Pu. All grown up now. Illi. Poor Illi. She wished there was some way she could save her. But she had no idea where Mallay lived. Every house in the city below looked alike, an exact copy of the next. It would be impossible to find her. But one day. Someday, she would come back for her daughter.

'Foolish thoughts. Already acting as if I'm out of here! I'm a complete idiot!'

That was when the first yell came.

"ESCAPE!" Came a deep rumble. "ESCAPE! The Prisoners are escaping! The Prisoner's are—!"

The voice suddenly silenced, but that had been too loud. Someone had heard. As if to answer her thought, a giant gong suddenly shattered the silence of the night. Chell turned her back, but the sea of freed captives behind her blocked her view of anything beyond the hall. Hundreds were with her now. Maybe three hundred, all packed into the halls.

Well, that was the best she could do, now the plan escalated. "Run! Everyone! _RUN!" _She bellowed, and then darted off down the hallway.

The exit was near. VERY Near. She wanted… she wanted to see Borage's demise… but the exit. No. She had to escape. That was more important. Freedom. Sweet freedom! She saw the door affront her. Saw the iron bolted door. A wooden door.

She crashed into it, and nothing happened, but she was not the only one. Right behind her, more frantic prisoners, desperately trying to escape, slammed into her, knocking the wind from her stomach. She didn't care though. The wood began to splinter. Air gone, she still tried to shout. To demand that they hit harder! Crush this door! Crush it!

The door shattered, bursting into pieces, hinges crampling as it opened and she fell through, weakly catching herself on her feet before she was trampled. Above her she saw the night sky. Gongs rang everywhere.

She ran. And she bellowed in joy! "Free! I'm Free!"

A hundred other shouts echoed her in mirth as they scattered, wildly dashing for the forest, only a scant half mile away.

Between houses they ran like madwomen. Whooping in joy. In laughter. The sky shone, moonlight glittering and the lights of a hundred thousand stars twinkling as if shining down joy on this night. She was free! Finally, she was free!

As her foot passed the lines of homes and reached the tents, where dumb soldiers were wearily climbing rising, shadows made visible through the small lights burning within, she heard a scream.

Borage. Screaming in terror. Louder than any bell.

She stopped, and turned back. And she laughed. Trying as hard as she could to run, she could not stop laughing.

**End Chapter Four**

**Author's Notes: **Whoa... Okay. Was it good? Or no good? Be Honest. I thought it was a bit rushed. Anybody like Illi? Lotta new named character's here. It'll be rough keepin track of em all. heh. Oh wait. I play in the wheel of time world. This'll be cake. (wink)

I hope you all enjoyed, and I also hope you understand why this chapter took so long. It was... a bit on the epic side I thought. And should leave you with some warm and fuzzy feelings for once.

But don't worry. It's not over. And if you've been paying attention, you'll note that Chell doesn't make it away...

**Please Review!**

**Till Next!**

**MB  
**


	6. Something to Live For

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Five  
Something to Live For**

_  
So few dared to touch Her after that. So few. All the guards talked of how they wouldn't go near her! All of them! They were terrified of her! The few that remained anyway. Most of them had become soldiers and taken off, going out on that war they'd been making, leaving only a few to keep us chained. _

_But still, I didn't get to see Her often. Only when I acted up and was taken to be tortured, did I manage to catch glimpses of Her. Can you imagine my shock to find Her collared? Leashed? She'd submitted! _

_But I knew better. Nothing could tame Her! Nothing! After the first escape in so long… after She brought Borage to his knees! How? How could she possibly have submitted? Of course it was a ruse. That must be it! She was planning something again. _

_I kept telling myself that. To get through. But as the days went by, and no second escape attempt came, hope began to ebb away again, and the only comfort I had was that Borage was too broken to remember to touch me. Too broken to touch my daughter. _

_

* * *

_

Ruby whimpered. Her form shuddered involuntarily and she did everything she could to make the vileness seeping through her seem less.

It didn't.

It continued on, and her throat could do nothing to hold back the moan. Chained, hanging spread eagle and face down from the ceiling, perhaps a meter high, parallel to the ground, Ruby let tears spill down her cheeks as she came again.

This was worse… _far worse_ than anything Borage had done. Borage she had been able to hate! Borage she had been able to be angry at. Marjoram… Marjoram was trying to make her love him. _Love him! _And the worst part about it was that it was _working._

Logic told her that he ordered the men to beat her. Rape her until she couldn't think. Torture her, even as their eyes quivered in fear from looking at her. She snapped her teeth and they flinched back, but still they raped her. Still their knives drew blood, their fear for Marjoram still outstripping their fear of her. They _hurt her_ until agony was all she remembered.

Then they left… and _he_ came. _He _put his fingers on her skin._ He ruined her. _He played her like a harp, and she sang as easily as one. Shame, humiliation, guilt, and utter ecstasy were her companions now. Oh yes, her mind told her that it was him ordering them to torture her. Her mind _knew_ he was every bit the bastard Borage had been and more. But she just… couldn't stop. She couldn't make herself hate him… not when… not when he… took all the pain away. He made it all disappear. Glorious bliss… light… if only he would stay forev—!

What in god's name was she _thinking!?_

Thought left her again as she felt a smooth touch bathe another gaping wound left on her upper back. She felt the thing begin to seal, as if healing it instantaneously. Again, her mind understood. A sedative… something to numb the pain while magnifying every pleasure center this cursed female body had! The bastard!

'The _wonderful bastard.' _She thought, trying to tell herself it wasn't awe filling her mind.

For every wound he soothed with his wondrously slick touch, and his mind fucking balms, she felt herself falling to him. Wanting him to protect her. Borage had given her no such wall. She'd been free to hate. Free to swear his destruction. Marjoram was not so kind, playing with her mind. Torturing her emotions. Driving her to madness.

She couldn't submit! She had to hold… She just…

She just had to…

Tears dribbled down her cheeks, making a small puddle on the floor which seeped into the cracks of the stones below her. Her stomach sagged down, or would have, had Marjoram's wiry hands not rested on her hips, holding her up. Allowing her blessed breath. Tripling her humiliation and her shame, as he pulled himself away from her, sickening sounds following him. She whimpered… wishing he _wouldn't _go, and hating herself for it with every fiber of her being.

"You came for me again, didn't you little Ruby?" His voice was a slur, a rasp that made Ruby shiver. His tongue, long and sickening, could make her eyes roll and her mind dance. She wanted to curl up and bawl.

"Y-You… piece of… s-shit." She cursed. Who was she kidding? Even with those words she couldn't keep the adoration for him out of her voice. He saved her! He made her feel so… _so good! _

She had to kill him… somehow! Before her mind could no longer comprehend that he was anything but the wonderful master her body seemed to think him.

Far more cruel then Borage could hope to be… She saw now why Marjoram took those Borage could not break. Borage stole her dignity, her pride, her dreams, and replaced them with revenge. Marjoram… stole her sanity and replaced it, bit by bit, with a maddening will to please him. Where pain and torture of the worst type could not break her steel walls, pleasure was turning them to rubble.

"I… hate you." She stated. And was surprised to actually feel that small ounce of hate. She had to keep that bubble there… or she would never be able to kill him. She would never be able to… Oh… _god _his fingers felt so good! She could breath! Oh god, let him hold her up so she could breathe without sagging… just a bit more…! Please god!

The man only grinned. She actually _felt _his lusty stare, aimed for her back and her legs, and her backside. She shivered. Finally, now that her mind wasn't overwhelmed with pleasure, she felt the vibes of pure creepiness that he exuded. Another difference between he and his younger brother. Borage projected an aura crafted to force any and all to fear him. But Marjoram… when she was not under his thrall, just when he entered the room with the pain of torture still fresh on her memory and body, she felt his aura. An aura seemingly born to cause shivers to crawl down his victim's spines, Gosunkugi on super-soba.

"Do you truly?" He asked amusedly. "How rude… here I am letting you breath for a little while and you go and _hate me? _Well…" He actually sounded almost offended. "Enjoy hanging there."

He let her stomach go and she hung limply, chains attached to all four limbs, unable to pull herself straight so she could breathe. It hardly softened the pain of it, knowing that he wouldn't let her die. The fact was grim, yet true.

Breath gone, she weakly sucked for air, pulling limply at arms too tired to lift her enough to fill her own lungs. Death by involuntary suffocation.

"Come on pet. You don't want to die, do you? Come now… say you love me. Be a good pet. All you need do is ask, and your master will oblige!" The tone was light, almost conversational.

Blackness was beginning to creep around the edges of her vision. He wouldn't let her die, would he…?

'Of course he would! You idiot! Think! He doesn't give a damn about you! _Think!_' Her mind screamed at her, but she could hardly hear it. He would let her breath…? He would… would…

Her lungs burned like fire. Her heart beat like mad, bathing in afterglow of pleasure, and now, utter terror at impending doom. 'No! Do-don't! Don't submit! Your pride! You're a man don't do this… don't… do…'

Short gasps began to burst from her. Die…? She didn't want to die. All she had to do…

was…

"M-Mas… L-let me… brea…" The words escaped her lips along with tears in her eyes.

He lifted her again, and breath filled her lungs. Glorious breath! "I'm so sorry my dear! P-Please forgive me…" The man bowed, holding her chest up, her breasts heaving with every marvelous gasp. "I'm terribly sorry… I won't grow cross with you again my little pet. I promise! Won't you please forgive me?"

He turned to pull himself affront her and, still holding her waist up, gazed down into her eyes. Ruby was almost certain that her own were glazed over in adoration. A puppy, accidentally kicked by her master, being spoiled afterwards.

She cried in rivers. Knowing how close she'd come. She'd whispered. He hadn't heard... but he knew. She was failing… and he knew it. Oh god… how much longer could she last…? A week? A day? Another session?

"Please… stop… doing this…" The words left her lips before she could stop them. His hand on her stomach, holding her up so she could breathe felt like magic. She felt hot breath on the back of her neck… so warm. His hand… oh god.. he was touching her _there again! _"N-No… not… not a—!"

The chain supporting her left leg suddenly sliced, and her leg fell to the floor with a hard flop. Instantly, the other fell, too. Large twangs echoed with both cuts, but she had no way of knowing who was doing what. Surprise crossed Marjoram's face, and his eyes jerked to the doorway.

Herb stood there. Regal as always, and toneless.

"You will leave, Marjoram." Herb stated. "I will have her now."

Marjoram gave that sickly grin, and Ruby reveled in it. That grin, a smirk as if knowing something no one else knew, was one thing Ruby found herself truly able to hate.

'_He stabbed you with harpoons when you first met him you _Idiot!' She screamed at herself inside. _'And reeled you in along the floor like a fish! Hate him for _that! _You were this close to calling him… calling…_'

It still didn't help. He was _still _holding her up. Still letting her… _breathe. _She let out an involuntary moan as a hand cupped her breast. The torturers had been so harsh with them. His hands felt like…!

The two chains around her arms gave at the same time, and she only barely caught herself on the floor, Marjoram's grip faltering as she fell. She shivered at the touch of the cold stone on her naked legs, and was glad that, as she tried to stand, Marjoram didn't stop her. She didn't quite manage it, but she knew that he could easily scoop her into his arms… baby her. Make her feel loved. Safe. Comforted.

Tears of shame at wanting him to do so filled her. Tears at her weakness. She could only last for so long dammit!

'How many drugs has he fed me…?' She thought weakly. The number was uncountable. They gave her comfort too. If she were in her right mind, perhaps she wouldn't feel such longing. Maybe if she wasn't drugged she wouldn't want to just take that brown collar so Marjoram would take her away and keep her away from the pain. Maybe…

It had been some time… weeks, maybe months since she had hatched her marvelous plan. It had been a wonderful idea at the time. If only she had forgotten Borage… if only she had run when she'd had the chance! Then she wouldn't be here… torn between the two princes, one her protector, and one her false savior. Both trying to ground her mind into paste.

"Are you… _sure_ you want her, little brother?" Marjoram asked in that sickly voice he used when he was being sly. "She's quite used you know. I don't understand what you see in her. She's not _that_ beautiful.

A lie. It had to be! He wouldn't…!

'_You idiot! You don't _care_ if he thinks you aren't beautiful! Stop simpering for him like a doll!' _The voice made her emotion's firm, and her terrified plea became a glare. The drugs were wearing off. They always did quickly, and Ruby almost thanked Kodachi for all the times she poisoned her; Akane too. They had prepared her for this. They had made her stronger.

'_An opening! Take it! Take it!' _Her tactical sense leapt out at her. Her anger. The drugs were fading… she could feel it! They were—!

To Marjoram's sudden surprise, Ruby closed her hand around his throat. Words, words that were actually hers, and not those of a drug, left her lips. "Snake… I'll castrate you, just like I did to your brother. How's that _sound…?_" She hissed, a maniacal grin plastered across her face.

Marjoram looked almost horrified for a moment, before smiling. Ranma's eyes jerked open in shock, as one of the man's harpoon spikes jolted into her skin. They were tiny things, but strong enough to drag her across rooms, when he reeled them in. This one was drugged. She felt it the moment it touched her, as her vision grew hazy again.

Shaking, she kept her eyes focused, still glaring. "I'll kill you… someday… Just like… him."

Darkness blurred her vision and she fell to the floor.

She awoke lying in the same place. Naked, of course, but she was able to move. A rarity. His drugs usually kept her immobile, but nothing kept her from embracing her ki. Not even them. Not even when she was fully under his touch, and thinking that she might love the bastard snake. Even then, she _still _held onto her ki. The manacles, holding back her power in full. But she would break it. Soon. She could feel it. Her ki was there, and these manacles were _not_ indestructible! She would… break free. Somehow.

'_Stop kidding yourself…' _

Rolling over, she rubbed her breasts. The feel of Marjoram's hands, touching them, mauling softly caressing… It still lingered there. Even now, even fully aware, he still had a foothold in her mind. His torture was cruel, and his sly smile every bit as hurtful as Borage's knives.

'_A foothold…? He _has you!_ Stop acting like you still have anything left...' _Her body wracked with sobs at the realization, but she quickly forced them away. She was stronger than this… she was!

She turned her thoughts to happy things. Home… Nerima… Akane. Ucchan… good ole Ucchan and her okonomiyaki! God but she could go for one of those right now! Pops. He'd throw a bucket of water on her in the morning and throw her out the window… She'd get mad, and he would just laugh. The fight would be on… the thrill of a battle that she understood. One that she could… win.

Her happiness had come from stranger things than just home now though. Borage wasn't dead. No. Not dead, but he might as well have been turned into a kitten. His manhood taken from him, he flinched whenever he saw her. He was _terrified _of her, and the feeling of knowing that she scared him as much as he had once her… It was almost enough to make up for being drugged into loving the touch of a… a…

Damn…! _DAMN! _The sobs were back again…

"You are alright?" Herb spoke in that calm tone, that almost always decorated his words.

Ranma wasn't sure if she hated him now. So many times, he'd arrived moments before she thought she'd be pushed over the edge. Moments before she'd decided maybe being Marjoram's plaything would not be so bad a life.

Time and time again, he came. Taking her from Marjoram. Giving her the rest she needed. He didn't play with her mind. Only kept her from being tortured, but that could be even worse sometimes. As if by saving her from Marjoram, he was just the same! She found herself wishing _Herb _would save her… take her away. Protect her…

He couldn't arrive every time, yet every time he did, she couldn't help the stark wave of relief that flooded through her. Another session with Marjoram, coming out with her mind intact. Another… bliss filled meeting with the man's touch, and she was still Ruby. Still the same slave who had castrated Borage. Still the girl who would destroy the musk. Still… _her. _

_Her. _It seemed like a fond and distant dream, memories of being male. She would love to be so again someday. Yeah. Male. That would be good… Maybe. If ever that chance came. Warm water. A bath. 'I wonder what those things feel like…?' She fantasized. Outside her mind, her body was still heaving.

After what seemed like hours, she finally lifted her eyes to meet his. "Why, Herb? Why do you do this…?" She croaked.

He only stared at her, and the silence drew her to continue. "I'd… Marjoram would have broken me by now, without you; you know that don't you? You could've challenged him for me. Taken me… I'd have been a mindless fuck toy by now… And you know it."

'_No you wouldn't! No you…! Wouldn't be… You… wouldn't.' _Even her subconscious seemed to know already. Her plan to take the collar… to stop resisting had been flung out the window as hard as she could throw it. If… if she accepted. If she relented… it would have been _real._

'_Would it be so bad…? They'd treat you well… they promised they would. Pet you? Make you feel good all the—!' _

'_Shut up!' _Her mind was a warzone and she felt like she was nothing more than the battlefield. And her pride was losing.

'_Don't fool yourself… your pride lost long ago.' _

No plans had come to her. No… no hidden manacles. No weapons. She had _nothing. _Nothing but…

"I do." He relented. "And I don't want to see that. It would… dishonor a great warrior."

Ruby remembered a time where she would have scoffed at him. She remembered a time when she would have screamed at the sheer idiocy. Could he not see that she had been dishonored? Could he not see that she had… was…? That she…

She couldn't muster the energy, anymore. She'd been wronged. She'd been _destroyed. _No one cared. Hell, no one even _knew_.

Now there was only truth. "I… I am broken. Herb."

Of course she was. Lying on the floor barely able to move… what did he expect? Somehow the sheer shock on his face did not make her happy.

Slowly, she pulled herself to her knees. She made no effort to cover her nakedness. She had one hope… _him._ Him and the wagon load of guilt he cared with him.

"I… I'll take the collar. If you challenge Marjoram for me…" She murmured. The sobs were coming back… but what choice did she have? It was either this or…

"_Master…!"_

She shuddered.

"R-Ranma, you—!" Herb bellowed when he found his tongue.

"Don't _call me that!" _She hissed. Slowly, she made a move to crawl towards him. Stepping carefully across thrown torturing equipment and cracks in the stones, she made her way to him. "I… I can't live up to that…"

The man seemed downright horrified. Where was the strong Ranma she'd shown him every time before? Where was the girl who hated him? Ruby wished she could find her. But she just… couldn't fight it anymore.

"Herb… help me...!" She grabbed onto the leg of his white pants and tugged, staring up into his eyes. "Don't let him take away what little of Ranma there is left in me. I don't want to be his doll! I… _Please…"_

The words burned her throat. Scorched her pride… but better than breaking. Better than becoming no different than Eika had been. She'd heard that the girl had been as strong as she once… that Marjoram had broken her.

Not strong physically. But a will like iron, as strong as her own.

And she'd killed her. She'd murdered her, thinking the girl had been too weak… What an utter fool she had been. The woman's face still haunted her. Tetru. Aiuke… Maybe they hadn't been tortured by Marjoram. But now she _knew_ what this place could do. What if those women had once been every bit as resilient as she was? As she… had been?

Now she teetered on the precipice of becoming just like them. And the closer she came to relenting to Marjoram, the stronger her guilt for their murders became. No amount of hardening of her heart could make up for… for what she had done.

Chell. They'd broken Chell with pain. God, she prayed the green haired woman had escaped…

"R-Ran… I… I can't… I won't call you that. You are Ran—!" He tried to protest.

"If… if you don't help me then when Marjoram's guards come to find me next, they'll find a corpse. I swear it…" She wept. "_Please…"_

Ranma would never have begged. Ranma would have died first. But… she wanted to live. To live… so she could destroy them.

'_Lying to yourself again?'_

No. She just wanted to be free.

Damn them to hell, but if she had the chance, she would run. Run, run and keep running until the Musk were nothing but a horrible, horrible memory on the other side of the world. And she'd probably hide in terror if they ever came for her.

…

When had she become so weak?

"I… Ruby… I'm sorry. I can't…" He said. A weak stomached man pitying the chicken he was about to kill and eat.

Despair took her fully, but affected her strangely. This was it. She would kill herself tonight. A small smile crept up her cheeks. She would finally be free. Finally. "Then… I guess… this will be the last time we see each other." The grin on her face was almost… happy. "When you die, I'll be sure to meet you in hell."

Her hair was long now… long enough to wrap around her neck. That would do… She rolled over on the stone floor, not caring about the metal spike of one of the morning-stars on the ground poking lightly into her abdomen, and closed her eyes. "It'll all be over." She whispered. "I'll be… I'll finally be free…"

Inside, Herb's conscious stabbed him harder than any physical object ever could.

'_I will help you, Ranma. Somehow…' _He swore to himself. _'I'll get you out of here… Somehow.' _

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of china, only a few miles south of the lowest dip in the great wall, the man who heard the wind was feeling tired. A bit parched, he pulled out his waterskin, and drank heartily.

Ever west he felt the wind take him, and ever west he followed. He had to find her. The red-haired girl who would save his China and wear the diadem of the old emperors.

It still _rankled. _These two weren't even Chinese! They were… they were Japanese! Blegh!

But if they were the only way to keep China from descending into death and destruction…

The wind led him still westward. He would hand her the cornet and be on his way. Yes. That was what he would do. Just give her the thing and that would be the end of it.

The Gansu province was just ahead… Still west. Still west.

* * *

"The war goes well, so far. As well as could be expected. The Amazon's are a resilient lot, but we will have them routed in no more than a year. The rest of this nation is filled with utter weaklings. _Guns…_ Pff." Setvanin of the Eagle's was saying in a reverent and deferring tone.

Tsingtao idly thought about killing the man, but it would be such a chore to replace him. He really wasn't a bad informant. His son, Mace, his eldest, often sent his own scouts to report the status of the war, but Tsingtao found that the best way to remain informed was to make sure your own units were always keeping watch.

And the eagles were so very useful at times. Tiny, and perfect for spying. Well. They were the only clan with bird-blood, and therefore the most mobile. Except him of course.

"What news of Tsukigezoku? How well do their defenses hold?" He asked, stately. He took a sip of water. He rarely aloud himself any other drink.

The man stumbled over himself trying to answer, his bird-like eyes darting left and right with worry. "W-Well, my lord. Ah… Tsukigezoku holds… But in another few weeks, I'm sure that your son will—!"

"It hold's strongly then. How many of the initial seventeen thousand sent still live?" He questioned. He lifted his eyes to actually meet the man's for the first time since he'd entered the grand hall.

"E-Eleven to Twelve thousand, my lord." The man stuttered. He lowered his eyes away from Tsingtao's quickly.

He was a good man, Tsingtao supposed. A decent soldier. And properly subservient, too.

"How?" He said simply. "I was well informed that Tsukigezoku held thirty five thousand people, and only about five to seven thousand were women of fighting age. How then, does such a village still hold?"

Of course Tsingtao knew the answer. _That _elder was there. And she'd been accounted for. The grunts had died, and the elder was now too weak to use that devastating attack again. He'd personally fought _that_ elder twice in his life. And twice she had left him near death. Both times with that single attack. Of course she had come far closer to death herself both times, but he still had not killed her.

And that did bring him a bit of anger.

"Th-there was an amazon. An… an elder. She… she fights like a demon! Wherever she is, the armies crumble… So…" The man trailed off at the blaze of heat that began to bellow off of Tsingtao.

"So. She _hasn't_ used the _Hellfire Chasm, _and yet my army is five thousand men weaker…" Tsingtao stated. Well. Now he was angry.

"Th-the… _Hellfire—!?" _

The man's head hit the floor with a hollow thud. His body remained standing. Tsingtao smirked. Thirty seconds… A full minute passed. The body was _still standing. _

"He _was_ a good soldier." Tsingtao thought, feeling the slightest bit better. The man's balance had been utterly perfect.

"Idrait! Come clean this mess." He stated. As expected a young serving girl, no more than twenty years of age, leapt out to come to the body. Only a moment did she wince before leaning over and picking up the severed head, placing it gently in a bag she already had prepared. Had he been killing people that often lately? Tsingtao grimaced at the thought of that. If he was killing too often then people would begin to think him reckless. Not that it mattered… he could wipe the entire city with a breath if necessary, but still, it paid to have honest loyalty.

Less chance of a dagger in the back. Even _he_ was not invincible.

"Be sure to tell Temai to compensate the family well for their loss. He came to me with arrows littering his body. I gave him a warriors death." He stated in a calm tone. Then he turned to the body. Ceremony had to be upheld after all. "May you shelter forever in the grasp of your father's home." He murmured, a slight chorus.

Idrait was getting downright _good_ at cleaning bodies. The thing was gone in no more than five minutes and she was already cleaning the bloodstains.

He glanced around his chamber, great pillars holding up ceilings stretching as tall as three men. The grand dais on which his throne resided was decorated with red shiefs of silk and finery from many lands. His sigil, the Dragon, lay marked in no less than ten places in the room. He was a simple man though. Much more would be gaudy.

His eyes swept past several trinkets and items lying on tables adorning the sides of the rooms. The precious things. Things that his sons wanted protected at all costs. This was the safest place for anything in the realm. No one would _dare_ steal from _this _room. Herb, his youngest son, and most probable heir, had left a strange item. A small string, once used to tie the hair of a girl he'd defeated not long ago.

_That_ girl.

Other items lay on the tables, and some were _not_ there to be protected. Some were there as reminders. A jagged cutlass which had stabbed him twice as a youth. Amazons had captured him once, giving him the four manacles that decorated his hands and feet, and the idea for duplicating them, to make holding prisoners a task of ease.

Other things lay there. A small black orb. Marjoram's treasure. If placed at the entrance of an ear, the thing would enter a mind and make one mindlessly obedient for the rest of their, admittedly much shorter, life.

A sword. Mace's Sword. He was on the front lines now, but that sword he would not use except in defense of his father, the King.

Borage had no items here, save one, now. He'd lost the privilege. So the only item remaining here was _his_ reminder. His severed manhood lay on a table in a jar in the far back corner where he could come and weep over it. The boy would never be strong again. Tsingtao doubted it anyway. His entire world had been cut off.

By _that_ girl.

It seemed he had a great many things to lay at this _Ruby's_ feet. He'd been the one to put the manacles on her himself, so surprised had he been that a _human_ had come so close to defeating his strongest son. A human wearing eight manacles… bah. The idea was ridiculous. Still, it seemed Herb felt… _guilty_ for having taken her in. Foolish boy. The strange piece of string that Herb came to see once every week or so seemed to have something to do with her, too.

Marjoram had his hands on her now. But she wasn't breaking. As strong as the mountains themselves it seemed. Well… he'd monitored her ever since the escape attempt that had forced him to begin his war prematurely. Informed himself of what it would take to destroy her.

It was about time for that. And that would assuredly lift his dour mood.

He supposed he should probably be more angry at the girl. She had castrated his son, and forced him to begin a war that he wasn't quite ready for. Not quite, meaning perhaps a few weeks early, so there was no great loss there. And the prisoner's escape was the worst offence, by far. Borage had always _been_ a weakling. In Tsingtao's opinion he deserved what he'd gotten.

The King ran a hand through his long white hair, and turned his eyes on Idrait. The slave had served him very well ever since he'd picked her out of the kennels. She was beautiful, if a bit haggard now, but he liked to stare at her. Especially while she wiggled, scrubbing dutifully at the stain on the floor.

"I think I'd like you to have a partner, Idrait. Would you like that…? A pretty little redhead for you? You could give her your duties and lose that tired look you have about you of late.

The woman _was_ good. She looked up at him, only to bow her head differentially. She lifted her bottom a bit, and he would have had to be a fool not to notice. Enticing little piece of meat. Too low for him to actually ever touch, of course; none but those touched of Jusenkyo's holy waters could touch him lest he become tainted, but the woman did have a pretty backside. Perhaps he would allow her a husband. She would like that.

As he thought of that, he could not stop the fact that Jusenkyo _had_ touched the Red-head from crossing his mind. A man, she had once been. How… strange that. But based on the laws of his father's before him, there were no problems with him laying with the girl. Perhaps he _could_ use another wife. It had been eighteen years since Herb's mother had died…

"I would like whatever my lord wishes…" She stated in an awe-filled tone, tinged with a bit of tiredness. How long had the girl been awake…? A jolt of shock came over him as he realized how long it had been since he'd sent her away. Little humans like her couldn't stay awake for thirty seven hours!

A pang of guilt hit him.

"Go rest, little one! I've kept you here far longer than your pathetic little body should be able to handle. You are a good servant, Idrait. Go, go. Another will clean this." He murmured consolingly.

The woman's eyes seemed to light with a slight twinkle in relief. There were bags under them and blood vessels dotted the whites to the point that they looked simply red. "Send Uri. He will attend me. Oh… and before you reach your beds, tell the guard to send a man to acquire Marjoram's pet. It is time I broke her."

"As my lord commands." It was a wonder she managed to say the phrase without shaking. She quivered with each step as she walked towards the towering doors some two hundred paces from the dais.

As soon as the door closed behind her. Tsingtao stepped down from his throne, and began to wipe away the blood.

Humility and restraint were key to being a good ruler. He had to remember it.

When he'd finished, it was mostly already done anyway, he tossed the bloody cloth and scraps into a refuse bin, and returned to his throne. It would be a short while yet before his sons and the girl got here. Still, it paid to be prepared.

He strolled casually to a chamber behind the grand throne room and opened a small door. His eyes lit in satisfaction, when the sounds of the main doors opening alerted him to the entrance of Uri.

Uri was his battle commander and advisor. Not to mention one of the greatest fighters the kingdom had to offer. Borage would have been putty in his hands. Herb likely would fall as well, though someday Herb would surpass even him. The boy's potential seemed limitless! Mace, his eldest might win, and Marjoram would probably kill the man with treachery before a battle ever truly began… but still Uri was a dangerous man. The blood of the ancient drakes, twisted half-brothers to his noble race, was not one to be underestimated, just because they were weaker.

No. Uri was not someone Tsingtao would kill out of annoyance. Though, for him, it would not be too difficult. If he _wanted to_.

"My King…" The man gave a quick bow at the foot of the Dias falling to one knee, and bowing his head, as was appropriate for one of his station. "You have summoned, and hence your liegeman has come."

"So quickly… Idrait must have run! Such a good girl she is.." Tsingtao murmured offhandedly.

"Indeed." Uri returned, in a voice that proved how little he cared. If only the man had a bit more care for anything outside of battles and stratagems! Honestly, the man could win nine in ten games of Steps, when they had the time to play, but show him a woman, and the man turned to utter jelly.

Useful that.

"I have called you to ask if the Tower is ready." The King stated simply.

The man, to Tsingtao's surprise, nodded. Good. His main focus was on the Amazon's at the moment. Cursed insects… But the Tower would keep those who currently controlled his China from knowing what was coming at them

"It will be ready to bring down their _Eyes Above the Horizon_ within the next two hours. No longer than that." The man stated. Not a man worried about pleasing or displeasing his King. Not a man afraid for his life. Just a man serving his king.

A good soldier-pet. A dog, perfectly happy around his master, but always wary of being trampled by quick-moving feet.

"That is good, Uri. You may leave. Fire when ready. Our concentration is on the Amazon wenches right now, but when they fall, those fools in Beijing will come next.

The man gave a bow, and turned to leave. When he was gone, Tsingtao resumed his walk to the small room in the back of his audience chamber.

"Mmmmph!" Came a sudden pained moan and he closed the door behind him, gazing admirably at the image he'd gathered and set up here in his private audience room. She hung by her hands, suspended from a rope hanging from the ceiling, back against the far wall. Her arms looked quite tired. Ah… that was how he wanted her.

"You're a good little girl, aren't you?" He murmured as he walked towards her. The girl put visible effort into trying not to shy away from him. "Yes, of course you are."

He put a hand out and rubbed her bulging stomach, laughing slightly at the strangeness of women. She would give birth in no longer than two months. Perhaps less. And she was not in any real danger. He would not kill her. It would greatly dishonor the man who'd taken her, if he did. Veter… was that his name? Yes. Veter.

But 'killing' and 'threatening to kill' were two very different things. But of course, if the red-haired girl refused to relent, Veter's dishonor could be dealt with if necessary.

He jerked his hand away, realizing that he'd trailed up to the woman's breasts without realizing it, and frowned. The globe was swollen, and the girl was screaming into her gag. Poor thing. He hadn't meant to hurt her so badly.

Women were little pieces of silverware. To be kept, and placed on pedestals, shown off, used when needed for a son, and cleaned to perfection afterwards only to be placed back on the pedestal until they became useful again. And if most were made of perhaps silver, or some other metal, then this girl was crafted entirely of glass, able to break at the slightest touch.

"Have you thought of a name for the child?" He asked casually. In one smooth movement, he ripped the gag, crafted of the woman's underclothes, from her mouth and sliced the rope holding her suspended in the air.

She crumpled to the ground like a sack, and fell haphazardly on his foot. To which he gave her a sharp kick. "Answer me, whore!" He boomed.

"N-Name? I get to… name it…?" She shuddered, coughing through choked breaths. "Veter told me… I…"

Tsingtao threw back his head and laughed.

* * *

Ruby shuddered. Her cell was cold and uncomfortable as always. No one around her spoke her language and she wasn't sure if she was thankful for that or not.

She had a plan now, and she thought it was a decent one.

Her plan was to strangle herself with her hair.

"I won't be anyone's pet. Not ever…" She hissed to herself lowly. Cowardice and fear filled her. This was it. This was the plunge into the unknown. But no matter how bad the afterlife was… it had to be better than this. She didn't imagine hell was a kind place, as that was surely where she would go. But torture she could live with. Eternal burning. Or perhaps being reborn as a cockroach or a mole, depending on which religion she decided to believe.

Better that than being someone's pet. Better that than losing her mind.

She twisted her hair harshly until it became a long rope on one side, and then doing the same on the other. It had reached waist length now, and was easily long enough to twist into two chords that she could tie together. She just had to have the fortitude to let herself run out of breath…

Slowly, she wrapped the first length around her neck. Then she twisted the other.

"Well, Ranma… I'm coming to meet you. I wonder if I'll be a boy in the afterlife?" She thought, trying in her own strange way to add humor to the situation.

It only made her feel more grim.

Slowly she began to tighten. She looped the hair around itself and tied it together; she pulled.

It wasn't tight enough. The pull on her scalp began to sting but she didn't care. She pulled tighter until she felt her airway begin to restrict. Tighter. Tighter.

Air began to come in gulps. Tighter still. "I don't want to die…" She whispered to herself. Or tried to. "But… I want to be free…"

She held the tails tightly, her grip firm. She couldn't let go. She _couldn't_. If she did, she wouldn't be able to find the resolve to do this again…

Her vision began to blacken at the corners. Her eyes began to flutter, but her hands held the ends of her hair firmly. _'I'm doing it…'_ She thought. _'I'm going to be free…' _

She began to slump over… but she had to hold on until she was sure she would die. She had to…

Suddenly, she felt something. A thump.

No. Had to hold on. Had to keep…

Her vision was almost completely black now.

Another thump. Her stomach…? Her… her…?

Another. Another! Thumps. In her… as if something was lightly punching her or… or…!

She let go of her hair in utter shock, and gasped in a giant gulp of air. Her breathing ragged, she hacked, coughing. She heard small laughs coming from other cells. More shocked protests.

No. No it wasn't possible. It… it just wasn't…

Another kick. She laid her hand over her stomach in utter and compete horror. "This isn't possible… it can't be that… It just can't be!"

Why hadn't she felt it before… why hadn't she…?

She gave an actual look at her body, the first in quite some time, and realized that there was a significant bulge in her stomach. How could she have not noticed…? How could she…?

'_What does this change…?' _She thought. Nothing. She was still a slave. Still on the brink of being completely broken. Yet…

'_Can you kill a child…? _Your_ child?' _Thought her traitorous mind.

A bastard child. _Borage's_ child if it was already big enough to kick her. The damn bastard… Well, at least no one else would have to suffer through Borage's mad tortures. Despite knowledge that she found Marjoram to be much worse than Borage, she still found comfort knowing that there were people unable to stand in the face of such pain as Borage could inflict, and thus happy that she'd rid the world of him.

For now at least. The man still wasn't dead. But as far as Ruby knew, he would not be hurting anyone any time soon.

Wearily, she leaned back in the best lit corner of the small cell. Which of course, wasn't saying much. She felt tired. Spent. Exhausted. Weak, and foolish. She should have just ended it. Better for her. Better for whatever kid her body seemed to think she needed to have. Another reason for the death she should have dealt to Borage when she'd had the chance.

For a sparse moment, her ki flared, and she almost thought she managed to touch. Almost… almost she felt her life energy flow through her veins. But it must have been a mirage. There was nothing. Still… she never stopped trying. Every second spent without pooling her ki against the barrier blocking her away, was a second wasted.

Though she didn't really even know why she tried anymore.

The creak of the cell doors opening greeted her ears. Footsteps. They actually left the door open, too. Rare that… most preferred the darkness. The steps came until Ruby her them stop just outside her cell. She did not look up. She couldn't summon the energy to look up, shocked as she was.

"Y-You are s-summoned before the King!" The man stated, quivering in what appeared to be terror.

Slowly she turned her eyes up to meet his. They were a chocolate brown, illuminated slightly be the light filtering through the door to the kennel.

"If he wants me, he'll have to get off his ass and drag me there." She stated. But there was little heat in it.

His form seemed to quiver back as if she'd snapped at him. A weakling, though the other man standing next to him, whom she had only barely heard approach with him, seemed to be much more confident.

"Th-The King—!"

Ruby cut him off with a snap. "I don't give a damn." She hissed, and the man really did flinch, backing into the other man with an awkward bump, that would have caused Ruby to laugh if she hadn't felt such despair.

The bigger man, the one who had yet to speak, rounded the other man and opened the cell bars. He entered slowly. Ruby didn't resist when he picked her up. He threw her over his shoulder, and she grunted. Realization as to why that had started to hurt so much a few weeks— or was it months? –ago crossed her thoughts.

"All this time…? And I didn't even _notice? _What kind of a martial artist am I…?" She murmured aloud, not caring about the strange looks the two men gave her. So what if she was going insane? She didn't care.

A few steps they walked. The bigger man passed affront the pathetic one, and she took her shot. A swift punch. The man was no ki adept. She could tell that from the moment he'd entered. Idly, she wondered if she was becoming too casual about killing weak Musk. As the man gurgled, her fist currently buried in place of his windpipe, the bigger man, whose shoulder she was thrown over jerked in horror.

He turned, and Ranma's bloody fist dislodged from the smaller one's throat, allowing him to slump to the floor. Still gurgling.

For a moment, she felt the man's mouth hanging open, and then she was manhandled and placed on her feet, staring up into a pair of large black eyes, on a face that looked ready for murder.

"Do it. He was your friend, right? Do it. The same way I killed him. Come on." She stated, staring up at him while poking a finger into her own neck. The manacles on her wrist jingled with every movement. Sometimes, she thought her constant efforts with her ki had an effect on the manacles. Sometimes, out of the corners of her thought, she felt the slightest touch of her ki slip through. Or at least, she thought she did.

The taunting, it _was _taunting, despite the somber tone she gave it in, caused the man to hesitate, and Ruby damned herself for it.

'_Had to go taunting him didn't ya? He would have ripped you in half and it would have been done, but _nooo! _You had to go and show him what you wanted!' _Her mind barked at her hatefully, and she glared back as if at war with separate functions of her mind.

She remembered a time when her thoughts were her own. Now it seemed as if there were voices in her head shouting at her. Perhaps they were the remains of Ranma? Sometimes it was the voice of the creature Marjoram's drugs were creating. Still other times the voice seemed to be something else entirely. Some mad thing, raving about killing everything. She didn't know where they came from. All she knew was that, once, she hadn't felt like she was three people residing in the same body.

The man _was_ impressively stoic. Anyone could see the sympathy the larger man had given the smaller; there had been some form of companionship there. But the big man didn't let it show. And, to Ruby's regret, he did not kill her. Or even hurt her.

Instead, he gagged her with a strip of cloth hastily torn from his clothing, and attatched a chain to the manacles on her arms, locking them together. Then he pulled her along, allowing her the dignity to walk after him.

"Fenaal. Ruby killed Eris." The man said plainly as he walked out, to the guard standing at the exit. There were always multiple guards in the cells were she resided. No matter how many she killed.

The man jerked. "_Another one!?_ The monster…" He hissed, looking at her with disgust and no little amount of fear.

Hah… _She_ was the monster. They looked down on her like she was a caged tiger. Especially when the truth was she was no more than a caged mouse. If these manacles were ever taken off of her… she would _show _them a caged tiger.

She stumbled along, and as she kept walking, she began to feel surprise. The now-dead-guard's words began to filter in and she realized that he had told her that the _King_ had wanted to see her. She'd never actually heard the King's name. She only knew that Borage, Marjoram, and Herb all referred to the man as father. Everyone else…?

"_His Majesty _will turn you into little more than a puddle of blood. And I'll burn whatever remains, whore." The big man hissed suddenly into her ear, after approaching a door that Ranma had only ever seen once.

During the escape attempt. The exit. The way out.

The doors opened and a light that made Ranma's eyes burn with pain. Such light! Oh god! The sun! Oh, it was spectacular!

Her eyes burned, but what a way to go…! If today was her last day, she was glad that she got to see it. The windows, well… arrow slits actually, hardly ever let in any light, and the only time she managed to see them was when she was being taken to the torture chambers. Usually fighting to claim just that one next life…

'_You can't die! You have a child! You are a man dammit! Now remember what that means and protect your kid!' _The pang of conscience slammed into her like a hammer between the eyes.

'_Right. Because the kid's life would be so great!' _Another part of her retorted.

She ignored them both. Or she thought she did. It was hard to tell.

For what seemed like days, she stumbled along, trying desperately to manage to open her eyes but the sun was just so _bright!_ It shown like the flash of a camera, multiplied and sustained for what seemed an endless length of time, but slowly, and surely, her eyes adjusted.

And she stared in awe.

Through those tiny window's during the escape she'd witnessed where her prison had resided. A place seemingly built into the side of a barren dirt mountain, fenced in by its natural surroundings. High above even this gigantic mountain stood the Tower of Ceira. A great spike ripping the clouds that dared pass by.

Or seeming to.

But that was not what struck her dumb with awe.

No. It was the barracks and the camps. Seven barracks. It had seemed like there were endless soldiers and endless tents before through that arrow slit she'd seen out of during the escape. Those two must have been the smallest ones.

In the valley that she now stumbled downhill into, lay what must have been more tents than there were people in any ten wards of Tokyo. Barracks, with tall wooden fences, crafted of marvelous pillars of some strange gleaming material that Ranma had never before seen lay surrounding the valley. Thousands of thatch roof houses, each the size of the Tendo compound or bigger lay down in the valley fenced away from the barracks.

Slowly, as she began to descend further, dragged along by her still nameless guard, she saw the people. Every man a soldier it seemed. Every woman, one for every hundred men, wore a brown collar. And little else.

One in five of those women were having sex. Openly. None seemed to dislike it either.

Though despite all the housing. All the debauchery, was the gardens. Every house had a garden. Every _tent_ had its own garden. And out beyond, she couldn't see them now, but she had witnessed endless kilometers of nothing but pure greenery and farmland, as far as the eye could see.

A twisted world. A twisted place. How long must this have been going on? How many decades had it taken to build such an army…? Probably not as long as she might have thought. Not with tactics like these.

But then, people began to notice her.

Musk and their slave women alike began to stop. Some of them even stared openly, jaws gaping. The women just as much as the men.

Whispers began to filter into her ears the further she walked, now entering into what she supposed would be called the _city._

"_Ruby!"_

"R-Ruby!"

"Oh… god… it's actually Ru—!"  
"I thought she was a myth!"

"It's _her!"_

"_Monster…"_

"_Ruby!"_

"—_eard she killed Prince Borage!"_

"No! She cut off his—!"

"God… look at those _eyes…_"

"Monster."

"_Murderer!"  
"…monster…"_

It was too much. These people thought _she_ was the psychotic killer! They were terrified of _her! _She wanted to cry every time those cell doors opened for fear of losing her mind and these… _idiots_ were afraid of _her!_

She began to giggle darkly.

The whispers ceased.

As her giggles erupted into mad cackling, she glared at them. Their frightened cringing only made her laugh harder.

* * *

Saizu Chan glared angrily at Gedir. He was her overseer; he had a better pay, a better job, stronger influence over the general, and most important of all: the man was an idiot.

"Listen to what I'm telling you! I _know_ what I'm doing you fool!" She glared hatred into his eyes, but he simply laughed.

Computer monitors flickered and flashed all around the room. Images of things from ants to vehicles littered the screens of hundreds of other people, most trying to ignore her and remain based down in anonymity.

Gedir Sol was her colleague in name. In every other way he was above her. One of only three women placed here in one of the intelligence centers of the Chinese Military, Saizu was taken seriously perhaps one in ten times. And of those, only for a moments at best. She'd grown up in southern China, learning as much as she could, and as soon as possible she'd left to find her passion. She'd travelled the world over in search of knowledge and recognition. To her incredibly poor judgment, she'd joined the Chinese Military, and now she wished she were anywhere else. These idiots did not take her seriously! She'd been recommended by her friend Matio Tetcha, a very respectable man… or at least he had been in the months before his sudden disappearance.

Now that he was gone, in some sort of disgrace as well, any credibility she might have once had tended to be regarded with the same disdain these men might give a rat.

She grit her teeth in anger. Gedir was the worst of them all. Technically, her position had been over his. Still was really, but he now had friends in places higher than she… therefore their authority rounded off at about even.

But then, he was a man, and therefore smarter.

God she hated her home country.

_'Where did Matio go? If only he were still here this never would have happened.' _She thought dismally, angered at all of her opinions being disregarded.

Bah. She had better things to do anyway.

Sitting down, she took to scanning China. She loved looking at the beautiful formations shown by the satellites from far above. It was… breathtaking really. She could almost zoom in far enough to see individuals now, and that had been technology she had crafted. The telescope on the Chatka… China's newest satellite. She'd been one of the main designers on the thing.

And she adored looking through its eyes.

But something she'd spotted in the northern mountains of China had her worried.

A war was erupting out there in the wilderness. Not that it was too important— they were barbarians out there after all— but she felt that they should at least keep an eye on it! But no! The stupid men…

She zoomed in further on a small area… Scrolled by miles across the land. Thousands. Tens of thousands of men seemed to be attacking a village of just as many woman. Strange that. But it was hard to really feel for them. It was almost like watching a historic documentary.

But… something strange was happening.

Every now and then, small bursts of light erupted. Grenades surely. And that scared her. A war was going on in China and these men didn't even care!

She sighed, letting her arms fall haphazardly over her small desk.

If only Matio hadn't left none of this crap would have happened.

She took a sip of her soda, and grabbed her coat, preparing to leave for the day. Had she stayed a few minutes more she would have witnessed the satellites picture erupt in pure white light. And then fade to black. _  
_

**End Chapter Five**

**Author's Notes: **Well, another chapter finished. Probably has you all quite depressed. Don't worry. Next chapter is where we finally get this war going. Finally introduced the King. Took for freaking EVER to come up with a name for him. Thank ozz for the one I'm using. For those of you who get a kick out of it, enjoy laughing.

I hope you all liked it.

**Please Review!**

**Till Next!  
**

**MB**


	7. Miracle

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow."  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Six  
Miracle**

_She appeared like wind. I didn't even understand how it happened, but suddenly She was just there. I lay in my cell, as always, still in shock even days after having seen Her wearing the collar. My one chance at escape had been tamed or so I'd thought. Those few days had been the longest in my entire life. _

_But suddenly, She was there. She sliced the bars. _Sliced_ the bars! I checked my eyes once, twice… thrice trying to make sure the manacles were really still on her arms and legs. They were. O, God they were! She was 'stronger' than the manacles! All eight of them! _

_As for how She managed to get us out? I have trouble even thinking about it. Let alone writing it down. In my opinion, it was nothing less than a miracle. _

* * *

Ryoga was getting irritated. He'd been utterly defeated by his arch-nemesis. He'd decided, upon learning that Ranma Saotome was once again alive, that if the other man bested him, he would take his defeat kindly, and strive once more to defeat the man.

Woman.

Whatever.

But after having come to, after his prompt and utter knockout, Ranma had not deigned to meet with them. For two days. The jerk. Even so, Ryoga had to admit that the Federated City States of New China had some damn fine accommodations for the representatives of Japan. The bedrooms were fully furnished with multiple refrigerators, one for each resident. Rooms with double beds for all, and very good food all around.

So, the large gaping hole in the wall of his room, the interior of that large scar mark across the edge of the palace he'd seen while walking towards it some days ago, didn't bother him nor his fiancée in the slightest. Honestly the only thing that bothered him about that was the view of the city, and the disgust he felt welling in him.

Ranma was the emperor of China. Why wasn't he helping all of those people?

Ryoga never got to see what it was that Ranma did. During the past two days endlessly wandering the palaces Ryoga had discovered quite a few threads of adoration for 'The Ruby Empress' though, and slowly he'd managed to glean bits of what it was the wretched Saotome had done for the people.

He'd freed them from slavery… or something like that. While there were men that grumbled about a woman being the leader of their country, most of them old with opinions as outdated as their facial hairstyles, they did it only in like company and only when they were sure no one was looking.

Of course, that wouldn't stop Ryoga.

And if there were some few who disliked Ruby as Empress, there was not a woman in China who did not adore her. It seemed woman who had fallen under the rule of the Musk had a rough time of it. Ranma only implied that she was beaten relatively often, but the flicker in the red-head's eyes told a much more sinister story.

Ryoga would stake his life on the fact that Ranma had been raped. The thought made him want to vomit, but there were little doubts. Locked as a female. Imprisoned. Sealed away from her ki. All things Ranma had stated, even if she had been trying to beat around the bush with them.

The woman raped and taken as personal house slaves, and those that would not submit, killed or tortured until they broke. The men butchered, or enlisted to battle and train to become Musk. That was the story the streets would tell. It did not take a genius to connect the two together.

Ranma… well, _Ruby,_ had become somewhat of a war hero. Rescuing woman. Killing Musk in a guerilla warfare like style.

The Ranma Ryoga once knew would never have killed, save in the most dire of circumstances. Seeing the woman… those brief flares of anger that seemed to sweep over her unexpectedly. Watching her shiver at times during her story as if reliving a nightmare while playing it off as just a few months of bad eating a couple of slaps every now and then. He would be a fool not to realize that Ranma had faced terrors he could barely fathom.

Still was no excuse to keep them waiting for so damn long!

"Ryoga is angry." Xian Pu stated plainly, and Ryoga felt himself relax a bit as her hand fell onto his shoulder soothingly. She always had such a blunt way with words that did wonders to sooth him. He supposed her unbelievable body, mixed with fighting skills matched only by himself, and Ranma, probably had a little something to do with it too.

Turning away from the gash in the wall that served as a makeshift window, and the rubble down below, he gazed into his future wife's sharp eyes. He planted a kiss on her lips softly.

"Why is Ranma letting these people just sit down there? Why isn't he doing something more? Half of them just sit staring at the rubble of where they once lived, and the other half spend their days drowning in wine and celebration, when they should be helping the homeless ones! Why do we get these beautiful rooms to sleep in when they are out there starving!?" He burst angrily.

"Because, my friend…" Came the voice of Ranma himself standing in the doorway. "My focus is on the other nations. The only way this New China can function is if I manage to get trade with Japan, Russia, and the western nations of Europe back up. Only then will I have the ability to turn my full attention to the reconstruction of this city."

To say Ranma looked tired would have been a vast understatement. The words were plain but the mouth that uttered them rested in a face that looked as if it had never seen a bed. As if a futon were a distant dream, and perhaps the only sleep they had ever found was in the middle of meetings, head lounging on chair arms.

"Follow me, Ryoga." He said simply, and walked out of the room, before Ryoga could get out the snarl brimming right beneath his surprise.

He stalked into the hallway out of Xian Pu's embrace, and was glad to note the girl following him, and caught Ranma a few steps down the hallway. "What the hell, Ranma? Why have we been just waiting around here for two days? Where have you been, and why the hell aren't you helping all those people down there? Sure, you're busy. You look like hell, so set someone to handle feeding those peop—!"

"As I said. Follow me." Ranma interrupted without preamble or even an angered tone, and walked off, again forcing Ryoga to follow.

Deciding against speaking, they walked on in silence for a few flights of stairs down, until Ranma broke it. "I'm sorry for not attending you. My son's first steps were two days ago… I was in Shanghai, so if I'm pissed you'll have to deal with it."

Ryoga blinked. His 'son?' Why did he keep back so many secrets? Was it really that useful to just keep dropping bombshells on them? And just how many stairs were there? This was almost the tenth flight if he'd counted correctly…

After a moment of silence to digest that little bark, Ryoga responded. "I'd have cared a bit more if I'd known you _had_ a son before just now, Ranma."

"Ranma have _son! _Is he too-too cute boy, like daughter Illi?"

Ouch. Ryoga's pride stung at that. He'd put so much effort into teaching his fiancée decent Japanese; did she _really_ just say that? For a moment his mind flashed to their teacher-student fantasies that they'd had to… _encourage her._ Oh… tonight was going to be _fun!_

Gah! He had to focus! Ranma, prepare to die, and all that.

He contented himself with delivering a borderline scathing glare towards Xian Pu, which she flinched at, followed by a seductive smile. Oh yes... tonight _would_ be fun.

What seemed like almost an hour passed, as they walked down what must have been hundreds of stairs. Ryoga had lost himself in thoughts of Ranma and their battle, when Ranma stopped suddenly. The man opened a large door that Ryoga hadn't even realized they'd been approaching and the sound of hundreds, maybe even thousands of voices erupted in his ears.

Bunk beds. Hammocks. Pillows by the billions along with what seemed to be as many people lined the insides of a downright enormous room. The real surprise though, was the fact that almost every face in the entire room was that of a child.

If his natural sense of direction was any indicator he'd say they were about two miles south of the palace.

"Wooow…" Xian Pu gushed. "A home beneath the palace for the refugees."

'_Dammit!' _Ryoga cursed mentally.

Helpful though that the girl had spoken so well. Clearly she was trying to make up for her earlier slip. Heh. That wouldn't save her; In other words, _yum._

"There are currently eighteen thousand six hundred and ninety three residents in the palace. I would have taken more but I was unable to. You think I look tired? You should see the cooks. I'm paying them triple. Over ninety percent of everyone here is a child. Each and every name written and recorded. Each and every parent assured that their child will be safe and fed. I've drawn up plans for seven shelters to help the adults outside, allowing their children to stay here while they find a way out there. Relief teams are everywhere. We're pretty lucky as far as food goes I suppose. The Musk were incredible gardeners, weird as that may seem, but many of those gardens were destroyed… a lot of that was my fault."

That sobered Ryoga's lust saturated mind quickly. Guilt painted the man's face, but Ryoga's eyes were drawn away by the magnificence, of the place. Not to mention the somewhat foreboding nature it seemed to have. The room, chamber really, seemed to be almost a mile high.

Small balconies lined the walls all the way up. Hundreds of them, each barred off to be a tiny… cell where whoever remained in it could look down or across the expansive room, up or down. Hundreds upon hundreds. Other things hung in the sky. Great walkways criss-crossing the room above. Ten, twenty of them, making paths from one end of the vast room to the other on different levels of the chamber. Multiple people resided in every cell, and even more children decorated the ground. Many older ones lay on the floor. A floor made of stone but covered seemingly for the entire hall with flat futons.

It was with some horror that Ryoga noted the shackles and chains attached to the walls. Everywhere. This… this room was a jail! "You're keeping them in a _prison!? _How… how can you _possible justify this!?" _Ryoga bellowed.

"What would _you_ do Ryoga? Let them sleep on the streets!? It _was_ a prison. Now at least they get a roof over their heads! Now at least they have light. Books to read. Children to play with instead of terror and taskmaster's whips!" Ranma retorted harshly. "There are eight rooms like this one in Beijing. The Musk were evil bastards but damn them if they didn't have good architecture. They made the people of China, of Beijing, build their own prisons. A lot of these kids have been here for the past half a year, and some are actually scared to leave…"

Their conversation had drawn some attention now. The room was cramped, and would likely have been boiling hot if not for being underground. Despite their curious eyes, Ranma ignored them. It seemed he had only come here to show them this room. Why the man hadn't just stopped at one of those upper crossways that criss crossed the room above, Ryoga couldn't fathom.

Ranma turned and walked towards the exit ignoring the strange looks many of the children were giving him. Ryoga and Xian Pu followed. Upstairs now, they went. Up hundreds once more, but it was a different set than the ones they had come down. Ranma seemed almost somber for some reason.

"I would have had a third child… another son about the same age as Tir. That's my son's name. But… he died." The man seemed so very tired… Ryoga felt his sympathy reaching out towards his rival and friend. To lose a son…? God. He didn't even have a child but he thought he might know what it felt like. He thought of Xian Pu dying.

"How, Ranma-san…?" Xian Pu asked sadly.

"He was… He died before he was even born." Ranma replied. "I'd prefer it if my parents didn't know."

Damn. Well that was just depressing.

They went on walking for another forty or fifty steps before Ranma said anything. He changed the subject swiftly, and his mood seemed to brighten a little. "I want to tell you a little more about Illi's mother. Her real mother I mean."

They remained silent, allowing Ranma the time to gather his thoughts, but continued walking

"Illi's mother was an Amazon. A prisoner for five years and longer. A broken woman, who somehow found her spine. I mentioned a friend in the cells… but I didn't give her the respect she deserved. She was my… best friend. I loved her, as much as I've ever loved anyone, and she died saving my life." The man stated in an almost reverent tone.

Ranma turned into another vast chamber, though not so large as the one before to stare at a life sized golden statue of a woman with long hair that seemed to imitate Xian Pu's. The man turned to face Xian Pu with a strong gaze as if about to deliver a punch. "Her name was Chell. She was your mother." By the way Xian Pu reacted, Ranma might as well have decked her.

"H.. How…? When?" Ryoga stated, shocked himself. Xian Pu was utterly pole-axed.

Ranma seemed to fight with himself. His clear, strong words now faltering. "I… probably could have found a better way to tell you that Illi is your sister, couldn't I…? I guess it was…"

"… **about a year and nine months ago." **

* * *

"_You're a disgrace."_

Olia twitched, wondering why in the world such a horrendous thought had crossed her mind. She bent down, tugging at a particularly stubborn carrot, wrenching and stumbling backwards when the leafy-top cut away from the root. Damn. She'd have to dig it up. She had almost seventeen now and about twenty three left to go to fill the last batch, and then she would be done for the day. She turned around, and suddenly shivered as a cold wind fluttered by her mostly naked body.

She loved the feel of being barely clothed outside, letting the wind caress her. The Winter had left her longing for days like these. Laughing she looked over towards Isaea's garden and waved at the woman herself. God, but Isaea was beautiful! Even so, Olia scorned her. Her husband was a weakling. Isaea didn't have a bruise on her! Who ever heard of a _Musk Woman_ who didn't have bruises?

If even _one time_ the woman would walk outside with her bottom reddened, Olia thought she could like the woman… but how could she be expected to do so when her husband was such a weakling? And Isaea didn't induce any of the other single men to challenge for her, for _some_ reason. Honestly, how could she have any pride in herself being wed to a man who would never actually _master_ her?

It was ridiculous really.

Well. _She_ was the epitome of the perfect woman. Obedient. Loving. Attentive. As was right. As was proper! Everyone knew women were craven beings, given to lusts that had to be controlled by the mastery of a strong man. Olia knew for a fact that it was only a matter of time before Isaea was found turning the Chihak, or forgetting to do her gardening, or… or _beating her children!_ Something horrible, she was sure, and that loser husband of hers would just… just…! Bah!

She moaned at the thought of raising _her_ husband's ire, unsure whether it was in fear or anticipation. The _last_ time she'd made him angry, he'd warmed her bottom till she couldn't think, and then had his way with her till the sun came up.

It had been _spectacular!_

She'd lain in her bed for two days after that, idly murmuring her master's name in reverence. He'd laughed at her, happily taking care of the gardening while his wife was out of commission. It was good that she had a strong husband. Many men let their wives on a loose leash. Some even blatant enough to speak out towards other women's husbands!

Not hers. No. He mastered her perfectly. She could not even think when he was angry with her. As was only proper for a woman.

For a moment a phrase crossed her mind, and she didn't know what it meant. _"You've lost your Amazon Pride…"_ She didn't understand it. What was an Amazon…? Bah. Perhaps she would ask her husband about it? Yes. That's what she would do. Tchurss would educate her. Maybe even allow her some chocolate for asking to learn new things!

She preened to herself. She was a good wife.

Her eyes strayed across the way to her newest neighbor, fingering her brown collar idly. Tua was a relatively new resident, and _very_ young. Her husband Veter, had just recently finished building his home, and moving his newly taken wife into it. She'd given the girl as many pointers with gardening, and serving her husband as she could— it was always good for new wives to receive tips from older, more experienced women like herself –but for some reason the girl seemed appalled every time she approached.

Very strange…

Luckily, despite her shyness, the girl was clearly a good woman, and her husband, a good man. Her bruises were many yet light, and the blush in her cheeks made Olia certain that Veter was training her properly. Her round belly made Olia certain she was soon to have a child, something she only barely held back her Jealousy for. Once long ago before she could remember, back when she was one of the craven outsiders, she apparently had taken some sort of damage. She would never have children… But she didn't like to think about that. Tua was a good girl. She would be a prideful woman in no time at all! Her garden was already growing a few carrots. Her cucumbers were a bit messy, vines getting a bit out of control, and they were still small of course, as they wouldn't mature for another month. The onions were getting close, and the radishes were ready.

But for some strange reason the girl wasn't out and about today, Veter himself tending to her garden. She waved to him and idly wondered what was wrong with the girl? Ah well. Perhaps Veter had been particularly harsh with her, and she lay in her bedroom half dazed? That made her want to laugh. Sure it had happened to her no longer than a month ago, but she always poked fun at her friends when their husbands grew angry like that. Just as they would at her.

That prompted another scoff at Isaea. The woman really _was_ crazy. Such a strange woman.

She had other neighbors too. Looking over to Cieya's home, she blushed and turned away. Now _there_ was a prideful couple. He was taking her right in her own garden! Spots dotted Olia cheeks. One would think she'd be used to that by now… She could never bear the shame of such a public display. Though, it was better than Isaea she supposed. Still… publicly…? She would be utterly embarrassed if Tchurss ever… well. She would.

"—_mazon Pride… Lost. Broken. Lost…" _

A whisper trailing across her mind. Yes. She would have to ask her—

"Olia! Wife! Come attend me!" Came a shout as her husband appeared. Shocked, she hurried to pull out another carrot a place it in the pail before rushing to him. Quickly, she moved to kiss him up his chest. Twice on the shoulders. Once on the lips.

His hands trailed around her body and she giggled as he cupped her bottom.

"—_isgrace! Your name is Li Axa!" _

This was getting ridiculous. Why was she having these strange thoughts? Tchurss would definitely know, and know how to fix them.

"How has your day been, Olia?" He asked with a wide grin. His nose was punched in a bit, and his body decorated with scars. He worked in the barracks. A trainer, so he didn't have to go on the war, preferring to stay close to his wife here at home. Oh, she was so glad for that!

"My day was marvelous!" She replied giddily. "Though… you wouldn't have any idea as to why Tua isn't out here? She's not been out all day. Very strange…"

His eyes narrowed a bit. "A bit curious about the new couple? I don't like Veter. But don't you worry about Tua. The King himself summoned her! That's all I know though."

Olia gasped. The King himself!? What an honor…

"How goes the garden?" He asked. "Carrots up yet?"

She gushed, and nodded heartily, disappointed in herself for not having finished uprooting them. She had about twenty left, and she'd already unearthed seven rows of them. So that was… two hundred and eighty carrots as soon as she finished.

"Just about. Only a few left…" She stated. She was proud of her garden! It was widely considered the greatest one in the entire southern valley province. That twit Akami in the north still had a larger one. Bah…

"That's good. I'll be inside when you are finished." He stated, beginning to walk towards the house. He looked tired. It would be good for him to rest before he had to go back for the rest of the day. It was lunch time and his dinner was boiling inside. But… perhaps he had a bit of time.

"Husband… A… a stray thought crossed my mind today. It's strange. I've never heard if it before… I was hoping you could tell me what it is?" She asked, meekly.

"I'd be glad to wife! What sort of thoughts have crossed your mind?" He said cheerily. He _was_ in a good mood. She idly wondered why.

"I… I have no idea what it is. Something I must have heard someone talking about I suppose. What is Amazon Pride…? For that matter, what's an Amagagghh!"

His fist closed harshly around her throat. "_Never speak those words… NEVER wife… You will forget anything you ever heard. Am I clear!?" _

She couldn't breathe! Oh god, she'd touched a forbidden! She hadn't meant—! No… no no no! She didn't know! She hadn't… Black flecks began to dot her vision. No...! She didn't know!

"M-Mas—!" She gasped, falling into his chest, choking as he let her throat free. His hands were not idle though. They began mauling her breasts, hard enough to bring tears to her eyes.

"You are a foolish girl, wife." He stated. Her face flushed a deep red.

"I'm sorry! Please husband, I'm so sor—!"

"Silence!" He barked. He turned her chin up to him before she'd even realized she'd flinched away from his eyes. She'd done something wrong! God, why was she such a foolish girl? "P-please… I'm very sorry. Please… show me what I did wrong, but… but not out _here!" _She winced, as his eyes blazed.

"I will show you who your husband is wherever I please, wife." He stated. A shiver trailed down her spine. Fear and anticipation again. But out here!? She'd be the laughing stock of the valley! How could she have been so stupid!? "And you will enjoy it or else…" He trailed off, his voice not finishing its original words.

"I… If you must…" She whispered meekly. Looking up to his face again, she saw something unusual. His eyes weren't on her. And his… _jaw_ was hanging. What in the world…?

She turned to find what had attracted his eyes, and her own jaw dropped. The description matched perfectly. She'd heard rumors but she'd never… actually believed!

_"R-Ruby…" _Tchurss murmured in a reverent, terrified tone.

"I thought she was a myth!" Olia exclaimed, staring in horror. Ruby! It was really the woman who lead the… _Schaats— the foreign tramps! –_on a break out! She could hardly believe it… but who else could it be? A Ruby red mane of hair spilling down over her shoulders and back mixed with blue eyes that could freeze the soul. Eight shackles, two on each limb, and scars that seemed to be healing before her very eyes. She was being led by a big man down the hill from the entrance center, right towards the palace.

As she came closer, Olia noticed other things. The girl had blood all over her shackles hands. And she… didn't have on a collar! Gods! Why didn't they just kill her!? The heathen! "Monster…" She hissed.

The red-haired girl heard, and her eyes snapped to Olia, freezing her where she stood, her husband also frozen in the act of punishing her.

The girl began to cackle.

The sound made Olia want to scream. She praised all that was holy that her husband had chosen to heft her and _run_ into their home. Any punishment he gave would be welcome when held next to that laugh, and that terrifying gaze.

* * *

Ruby kept laughing at the people until most of them returned to their work, trying to ignore her, or ran into their homes in fear. She'd finally gotten to the big man dragging her along as well it seemed. He looked at her like she was a viper about to bite him.

She didn't blame him. She'd considered biting him. Helpless victims like her used what weapons they could.

Ruby would have glared daggers at Veter, upon seeing him, remembering that first night and what he and Galm had forced Aktaya to do in the cells. But she didn't. At the time, she'd been a naïve fool. It hadn't been long before she'd learned that Veter was one of the kindest, most gentle torturers in the entire facility. Only Gimmer was more so. Even so, Ruby filed the information away. Veter's home was where Tua must be being held.

That didn't keep him off the list of those who needed killing though. He still was a Musk bastard. Only Gimmer had escaped her desire for revenge completely. She owed him her life, more than once over, and in good conscience, couldn't harm him.

Passing by, Ruby had trouble not gawking at the sheer twisted ways of this society. The debauchery of these people was disgusting, but the scenery would have been breathtaking… under different circumstances. Gardens… so many gardens. Women tending all of them it seemed.

It was so strange to see woman that appeared to be genuinely happy out here. Perhaps they didn't know they were slaves? Perhaps they'd cracked, and thought this was a normal life. A life one could enjoy.

It made her sick. The Kennels were torture, but it seemed that the training of woman only '_began' _at accepting the collar. She could see it on these women's faces. Adoration. Even genuine _love_ for the men with them. This was literally how they lived. Wearing practically nothing, tending gardens.

She wanted to gag.

'_Why isn't Aktaya with Veter?' _She thought, as a looming sense of dread began to hover over her.

A thought struck her. She'd never learned who had challenged for Aktaya. The girl had said there were seven right…? Or was it six? The thought that Veter might not have won Aktaya had never crossed her mind. Veter was gentle, true, but Ruby knew strength when she saw it. And Veter had it in spades.

She was led up a massive stairs leading into a tower, dwarfed only by the surrounding mountains and Tower of Ceira.

It seemed all of the Musk Architecture had an air of 'massive' about it. Every building was enormous. Even the regular homes were at least the size of the Tendo compound. This building however, made all the rest look like ants next to a person. Even the great barracks seemed small.

The most strange part about it was that it didn't seem to be a castle in the sense she would have expected. It wasn't walled away from the rest of the city. It didn't really even have a courtyard or anything to signify it was greater than the other houses, save for its massive size.

A door, looking almost exactly similar to the one on the front of Veter's small thatch roof house, differing only by about ten square feet, opened into a vast anti-room.

If the outside had been plain in its grandiose nature, the inside was anything but. Massive pillars decorated with hundreds upon hundreds of unlit candles littered the walls of the interior. Plush red carpeting, along with unbelievable statues and figurines and paintings all portraying an air of 'fine' that Ruby had never known. Wherever there was not carpeting resided marble floors of the most polished type. Ruby thought she could see herself in the shimmer of the floors. The walls, crafted of a wooden beauty that had never before graced her eyes, she almost gushed at the magnificence of it all.

She'd once thought the Musk to be backwater Chinese barbarians, despite their knowledge of Ki. Maybe even because if it. It seemed she was wrong though.

Following the carpet, she walked through another two rooms like the first anteroom, each with somewhere around five to seven doors leading off to other places. All of them were closed.

Hmm. She'd let the man think he had her properly cowed for long enough she supposed. This grandiose room, and perhaps killing that weakling, had inspired her a bit. And now that the drugs were almost completely worn off, she found that the despair that had been so overwhelming before had diminished. She had the attention of the mighty now. And she would not show them how close to the brink she was. She would not let them see it… not until she was dead.

A particularly sharp looking suit of armor, clothing a statue that held a hefted axe would be the perfect prop.

Suddenly, she rushed forward and pushed the man in front of her.

He barely moved, as expected. Instead, he slowly turned back towards her, anger blazing in his eyes.

She made a great show of blushing, as if she'd tripped. The man didn't know her, and she didn't know him. Big mistake. He should have learned what he was dealing with before attempting to escort _'her_' anywhere.

She shifted herself, and dodged the lightning quick lunge for her neck. Ooh… touchy. He wanted blood. Perfect.

She dodged once. Twice. Only barely managing to avoid his quick hands. He was not weak, that was certain sure, but he also wasn't the greatest fighter. It was unlikely that he could shield his whole body from resisting the point of a blade.

He pulled on the chain, tugging her towards him, and she jerked towards him herself, surprising him, and delivering a strong uppercut to his face.

It of course, didn't faze him, but did give her the opportunity to place her back right up to the edge of the bladed axe. He turned to glare at her. Perfect!

He rushed, and she ducked, crouching and flattening herself to the ground. A thick, slice, and a loud crack followed, and Ruby felt little bits of rubble scatter all over her.

Looking up, she saw what had happened. The man had run himself through on the axe alright, and his eyes were widened in shock. Or… he would have. The statue's arm had shattered at the elbow, dropping the arm and the axe with it to the floor. The man's body had been stronger than the axe's blade.

Suddenly the chain jerked, and she found herself hauled into the air by the top of the thing. He _was_ big… Her arms straight up, he held her high, one handed, his eyes glaring into hers as her feet dangled inches above the ground.

He glared at her and spoke some flashed, scathing Mandarin. She'd learned a bit of Mandarin since being imprisoned here, and his words were strong. Even so, she was quite certain he'd called her a snake. She was pretty sure bitch was thrown in there somewhere too.

"You'll be paying for that, Emmito." Came a harsh voice from yet another big doorway.

The man turned, shock evident on his face and knelt, dropping Ruby, who caught herself. And did not bow.

A man stood in the doorway. As tall as the big man, Emmito, this man had an air of authority to rival Marjoram. Regal, with a white coat lined with silver trimming, and long flowing white hair, he looked uncannily similar to Herb. Just older, with a more narrow face, and eyes that made her quiver. A single circlet surrounded his head, little more than a metal ring, with a single amber gem imbedded into the front.

She had no doubt. If _anyone_ was the King Herb and Marjoram spoke of, this man was him.

He walked up slowly, and Emmito bowed lower. He was actually quivering! And as Ruby felt the sheer power of the man before him, she couldn't blame him. Looking around him, she saw candles shaking in their holsters when he walked by. Rubble rumbled along the ground, not moving, but vibrating as if they, too, were trembling in awe.

She felt proud that she didn't shake herself and met his eyes.

Until the Emmito grabbed her chain again, and yanked her to the floor, anyway.

The King turned his eyes to the busted statue and the rubble strewn across the once pristine marble floor, but his eyes seemed filled with nothing but sheer mirth.

"Stand." He commanded. Emmito was up before she realized it, but she was made of sterner stuff. Ruby decided to curl her feet under her and sit Indian style. The man could blow off. It didn't matter how strong he was.

He smiled. And the smile almost seemed like… actual laughter? It wasn't even all that malicious. This man was the father of a twisted bastard like Marjoram? Borage?

"Oh I'm going to _like_ you my sweet." He stated simply. "Yes… but first things first."

The man opened his palm, pointing towards Emmito. And he… winked?

Ruby _saw_ what happened. She knew she did, but she couldn't make herself believe it. Emmito was there, standing right in front of the man, when suddenly she felt an intense well of ki. A sharp silvery lance formed at his palm and flashed to Emmito, for less than a second, it wrapped around him, a silver fire scorching him to the bone. A sparse instant, she watched the man's face curl in pain… Clothing evaporated, and his skin seemed to melt away into the air, floating in little pieces before it too seemed to burn to nothing in the silvery flame. Flesh. Eyeballs. Fingers…

A skeleton collapsed to the ground, bones clattering across the stone floor.

Ruby couldn't help but gulp, replaying the scene in her mind. It wasn't possible… it just… wasn't possible! He couldn't have just…? Couldn't have...

The man's smile widened. A real genuine grin. He was happy! "I _did_ tell him he would be paying for that." The man beamed.

Ruby gulped again. "Pff… h-he was a w-weakling anyways." She stated defiantly. That wasn't a stutter. Not at all. Something was simply caught in her throat. That was it.

For a few moments she sat there forcing herself to stare into his eyes. Looking him over again, she saw something unmistakable resting on his wrist. Her jaw almost dropped then and there at sight of the first shackle, but no. That wasn't enough. Four manacles… the man was actually _wearing_ _four manacles!_

She was no weakling herself. But anyone would have to be an idiot, not to be afraid here. Even so, if this was her death, then so be it.

"Well? Get it over with, if you're gonna kill me." She barked, finally managing to master herself.

He looked perplexed. That damn grin never really left his face either. "Kill you? Why, Ranma! How could I possibly kill the first person brave enough to glare at me in almost twenty years? Did you know the last person who did was a dragon I dunked in the Nyanichuan?"

Had she been standing she would have tripped and fallen flat on her face at the sound of the name she once remembered. How did he know it? Why would he not kill her? She'd cut off his son's… well… honestly if someone ever did that to _her_ kid, she'd probably want them dead three times over.

A kick at her stomach. She shuddered. Best not to think about things like that. Not until the child was actually born. It was likely that she would be dead soon anyways…

'_You can't let a kid grow up here! And you can't stay in the prisons! Not with… not like… You must keep trying!' _

She shook herself free of the thoughts, and made herself meet the man's eyes again, standing this time to draw herself to her full height. Her nakedness no longer affected her. Despite it, even because of it, she stared him down with all the cold venom she could muster.

"My name is Ruby." She stated.

"And such a pretty name." He commented. "Ranma."

Her face flushed with rage. "Stop calling me that! Musk Bastard."

"Pregnant whore." He replied, laughingly, not seeming to realize he'd thrown a verbal brick at her. She only barely kept from growling. When she didn't respond, he looked at her, a petulant pout on wiped across his face. "What? You called me names first."

_This _was the King everyone was so afraid of? This was the man leading a war against the Amazons, and China soon to follow? _THIS? _

Her eyes trailed to the bones scattered about the floor. The skull had broken into many pieces upon banging into the ground. Seeing that again, she supposed she could believe. He radiated power that would have dwarfed hers without the manacles. He had an air of confidence that Ranma couldn't have competed with. And he seemed… young. Older than Herb, but had he and Marjoram stood together, she would have picked the snake man for the older every time. Borage too for that matter.

The man stepped up to her, towering over her as everyone seemed to. "You… are a particularly bad girl. Prisoners escaped, robbing me of the element of surprise. The Amazon's village would have fallen the first day if not for you."

"Hmph. You're idiot men will fall like flies to them." She hissed.

His grin came back in full force… or perhaps it had never left. "I surely do hope so! As you said, most of them are weaklings anyways!"

His hand fell down to her wrist, and grasped it. It was a slow thing. She probably could have dodged his falling hand, but didn't. It would have been a useless gesture. For a moment, he fingered the upper manacle.

"Did you know, my sweet, that only one other Amazon has killed more Musk soldiers than you? Only one!? And our never-ending skirmishes have been lasting for the past six hundred years, ever since I first ascended to the throne." He said with that laugh that seemed to be a permanent part of his personality. "Well… I suppose there _were_ others. They all met unfortunate ends… quite similar to our little weakling Emmito here." The man gestured to the skeleton with his free hand.

"I never said the Amazon's were strong. Just stronger than you." She baited.

Inside she prayed that Ku Lon would destroy this man. Not likely… she remembered the woman fearing Herb. Perhaps someday… someone could kill him. She wondered if bullets were capable of puncturing his skin? Surely it was… surely an organized army of gunmen could take down these men?

A nuke would kill them wouldn't it?

And how many innocents…?

"Well. Let's get down to business shall we? I know your name, but you do not know mine if my servants have been holding faithful. I am called Tsingtao. I hope you will enjoy my company for a time today?" He said, giving another flourish of his elaborate clothing.

"I hope you burn in hell." Ranma sing-songed with her own smile. He ignored her, his grin not faltering.

"You have made my son into an impotent bunny rabbit. Now you will turn him into a lion again. Oh… and that collar you keep refusing? It's sort of a necessity for women in the new world I'm crafting. You're going to have to wear one." It was a statement. As if he actually expected her to… agree or something?

So she spat in his eyes. "You can wrap one around my corpse's neck."

'_Come on… just kill us…! End it… Let it all end.' _

"_No! You would let a child die…? How could you?'_

'_Burn them all! Bash this man's head in and consequences be damned!'_

She shivered, and shook herself. The man's eyes had not even narrowed. There wasn't even a hint of anger on his face. He simply wiped his face off with a gloved hand, and brushed it off on her breast. She was happy when slight surprise crossed his eyes when she didn't flinch from his touch.

"You have a strange sort of defiance, Ranma. I've never seen the like…" He murmured. It was the first time she'd heard his tone slip from that uncanny happiness. "I do enjoy it, though!" He grinned.

That grin already pissed her off.

Before she saw him move she was swept up in the man's arms, bridal style, and walked towards the doors from whence he'd come.

She would have struggled, and attempted to for a moment, but the child within her didn't like that much, and she felt kicks at her harsh treatment. _"I'm sorry…"_ She felt herself mumble, without meaning to.

Thankfully, as soon as the door opened, he set her down. She sent him a glare, which died when she saw what he'd brought her to see.

Hanging from the ceiling affront an elaborate throne, was Aktaya. "R-Ranma!" The girl exclaimed. Her stomach bulged with the last few months of her own pregnancy, and Ruby's rage boiled into oblivion.

"You _son of a bitch…!" _Her voice was laced with both poison and worry. The woman seemed to be tired. Oh god, her wrists were burning red! How long had he left her hanging there…?

_'The baby! She looks like she's going to have it in a few days and she's hanging by her arms!?' _The thought made her anger flare ever stronger.

"Ah ah!" He said with a twist of his fingers, his other hand facing the hanging girl palm first. "You want her death on your conscience? No? There's a pretty brown collar that will get her right back to her husband safe and sound." He stated.

A man, taller even than Tsingtao approached her holding a brown collar.

"But I'm a merciful king! Even little pieces of furniture like yourselves can have a few rights. Take the collar, Ruby, and I'll allow little Tua her old name back. And! I'll let her name her boy! Aren't I kind?" He asked warmly.

Aktaya whimpered hoarsely, her eyes wide in hope. Tears trailed down her cheeks and her arms seemed like they would fall off in moments. "P-please… Ranma… Please take the collar…!" She begged.

Ruby could tell that the girl's self hate was likely skyrocketing to untold heights. But she was no fighter… she was just a little girl! By god the girl was only sixteen at the most!

'_You aren't more than eighteen…' _A voice in her mind bated. She wondered which it was.

Her hand quivered… and her eyes darted left to right. She didn't want this! She didn't want to _take_ this! But… Aktaya… She…

Her eyes flashed one final defiance. One final hatred. No. If he was going to keep her alive, then she would find a way to destroy him. If she was to be out of Marjoram's hand, then she would use the freedom to find a way to destroy this man. And these people. The Musk were a plague, and she would eradicate them.

No one endangered those she cared for. No one hurt the ones she loved. She'd only known Aktaya for that short time… but, the girl was the sister Ruby had never had.

"Everything you have, I will take. Everything you love, I will destroy. And then, I will kill you. This I vow." She stated, hatefully. Then she snatched the collar, and buckled it around her neck.

She expected some giant loss of power. Some mind numbing haze to cross her mind. Nothing did. It was just a plain brown collar. It would not turn her into a pet. It would not make her a slave to these bastards. No… It wouldn't. She hoped.

Tsingtao leaned down and pecked her on the forehead. A man kissing the hood of a finished masterpiece of woodcraft. Or perhaps a well loved car. "I look forward to it my dear!"

She would make him eat those words… someday.

Two beams of silver cut Aktaya's bonds, and a third caught her in mid air, cradling her to lay her gently on the ground. "Take Tua… no, _Aktaya,_ back to Veter. Make sure he knows her new name is my will. And it is her right to name the son she bears, in my name."

His grin was gone. He was being serious now. Apparently, only men were worthy of seeing him without that grin.

She would make him eat his words till he burst to pieces.

A hand slipped around her and fondled her breast quickly, letting go just as fast, with a light moan. "Now, girl. Your new duties are to my son. You will meet him back at the kennels. Oh…! And the man who will be taking you back annoys me terribly. If you could kill him, that would be greatly appreciated."

She wanted to spit in his eyes again.

* * *

Ruby's nose cringed at the smell of the dark room. It had the scent of dried blood and uncleaned flesh, and was far too dark to see anything. The torch held by her guard, Galm whom Ruby remembered as one of the two who'd first tortured Aktaya so long ago, moved around the room slowly. He seemed on edge, waving a torch that seemed dimmed by the oppressive darkness of the room.

The collar fitted around her neck itched something awful, and she swore she would watch the thing burn for at least the third time, as the torch's light highlighted Borage's bulky frame.

She'd been almost a full fourteen hours off of Marjoram's drugs and her resolve was back in full. The utter hopelessness she'd felt for so long had finally lifted. She'd forgotten what freedom of mind had felt like before, and now that she had it back she felt utterly wonderful. What it was like to not bear the weight of crushing hopelessness, was a feeling she never would have been capable of describing. The adoration that Marjoram had instilled in her however still lingered in the back of her mind. She wasn't sure if it ever would be fully destroyed.

"Be about it quick. I want out a' here." The Galm barked. She didn't blame him.

She wanted more than anything not to do this, but she'd been given no option. Take off Borage's manacles, or Aktaya would die. He'd suffered months of punishment for his weakness. Now he was to be given back his strength and built up again.

Though _that_ had been an interesting thing to learn. The manacles could be taken off easily, with little more than a tap. But only by the one who had put them on. So… she had to learn who had put these things on her. God but she wished she knew.

'_Don't do this! He'll just start to torture you again!' _Came a soft demand in her head. She very much wanted to listen to it. But…

'_I can't let Aktaya die.' _She thought, and was surprised to realize that it was her own, and not one of the voices in her head telling her thoughts. She really was healing.

She remembered standing over Borage. Laughing as she sliced at him. Laughing. She'd been a complete idiot. A burst of white light had silenced her laughed her, knocking her into a wall, into unconsciousness before she'd been able to kill him. And now she was paying the price… but hopefully, if he was too weak to regrow that colossal spine, then she wouldn't regret this.

Sauntering to Borage's bed, she shivered at the sight of him. The master of pain lay in a crumpled heap, a blanket strewn across his body. His eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. Not seeing her. Not even caring.

"_Oh Boraaage…" _She cooed, mischievously reminiscent of her tone that night when she'd sundered all he held dear.

That got his attention. He jerked to her, his eyes wide with fear. _"Y-You…" _he quivered. "C-come back for more have you?" An attempt at defiance. A weak one at that.

His strength was sapped. His body no more than a doll, even compared to her own weakness. She flexed her ki, and angrily battered against her own manacles with it. Of course, nothing happened. Each push made the strength of those damn shackles push back. She'd never let it go, her Ki. Held on to it, even during the worst of her torture. Held and pushed relentlessly against the manacles, hoping that one of them would break. Just one! Just one, and she felt perhaps she could break the others.

Not like Borage… the weakling.

'_Aktaya… think of her. Of her baby!'_

'_Oh? And what about all the women this man will surely torture once his strength returns? Once _you've_ made him that bastard he once was? How many will die…?' _The thought folded her stomach in guilt. But… Aktaya. She was her friend. She couldn't watch the girl's skeleton crumble to the ground like the guard's had.

Not with Aktaya…

A slight tap, and the manacle on Borage's left wrist clicked off. His right wrist. His legs. Slowly, she bent and picked one up. Twisting, she flicked the thing over and it latched around a shocked Galm's wrist faster than the man could even think.

A heart beat it took for her to grasp one of the many daggers lit by the torch Galm held. Well… if the king wanted this man dead, so did she.

Her dagger plunged.

He caught her wrist, folded it behind her, and glared in utter hatred, bending her forward under him. "Have to do better than that…" He hissed into her ear. "Well… It was a good try… if one manacle were enough to shut my ki down. But I'm a bit stronger than your average Musk."

Ruby, hands held behind her back, turned her nose up to glare at him. She was about to speak when he cut her off.

"Take it off." He barked, glaring down at her. She blinked, surprised at the demand, and abruptly she realized that he was actually trying to force her by bending her wrist forward. It tickled. A little bit. Galm had never been among her torturers. Hah! He actually thought he was hurting her? Hell, she hadn't even noticed he'd been trying…

"Fuck off." She jerked. "I was tortured by _him_ and he couldn't break me. You think you can with a little bit of wrist bending?"

She swiftly lifted him over herself, to his shock, and threw him to the floor over her back. She stepped on his face during the moment of his shock and walked back to Borage. Only a moment, she hesitated, before laying down atop him, staring into his horrified eyes.

She considered trying to break out, and running for it, but discarded the thought. Galm would be ready now, and she knew a hopeless cause when she saw one. Fighting him, and the five guards outside the door staring in, would be failure added to failure piled atop failure. She couldn't break out of this, not with just those four manacles.

Not with Aktaya's life on the line. She might escape, true, but Aktaya would be dead before morning.

"Master…" She uttered in what she hoped was a reverent voice for Galm's sake. Then, she leaned down to his ear and whispered lightly. "I hope you enjoy having me as your pet. Look at my pretty brown collar! See… I've been _tamed._"

"G… g-get away from me!" The man shouted on the edge of hysteria. Ranma felt a hard thwack, and her head rung as she stood from the floor on the opposite side of the room. Well, he was strong. But from the way he was now curled up like a kitten it seemed she'd broken _him._

The pain of being slammed into the wall felt similar to what she thought a fly swatter might feel like on bare skin, and she stood quickly. Annoying.

"Galm. Leave us. I don't think Tsingtao would like you being present for Borage's… _rehabilitation._" She had easily noticed the power Tsingtao had given her. An order from him, gave her authority to see to Borage's recovery. It was a bribe. Tsingtao wanted her as his own. But not just as a pet. No… he wanted her, willingly, at his side. Or at least, she believed he did. Perhaps this was some ulterior game he was trying to play with her, but if it was she didn't see it. There had been lust in his eyes as ever there had been in Marjoram's or Borage's.

Galm got to his feet and was beside her like a bullet. She tried to dodge, but wasn't fast enough as he grasped the back of her by the throat, and lifted her off the ground. "_You will_ never speak the Holy One's name, _dirt!" _He growled.

Her throat constricting, she grinned down at him. The Irony! The king wanted this man dead, and he defended Tsingtao's name! "And _you_… will let me down." She grated hoarsely through her closed throat. She held a card or two now. They had the rest of the deck, but it was still a victory as proved by Galm's compliance. Reluctantly. Slowly. He lowered her to the ground, hatred blazing in his eyes as he jerked his hand from around her throat, and walked out of the room, slamming the great wooden doors behind him.

Borage's eyes had never left her, and now she met them with a cold glare that he cringed from. He could destroy her with a good punch. A ki blast. And he was free to do so as well, now. But he was a coward. And her eyes burned him to cinders.

"Lay on your back Borage." She stated. "This is only going to hurt a little…" She gave a large hook lying on a nearby counter a lick, and her grin only widened at the frantic look in his eyes as he pulled the blankets around himself.

The Musk form of rehabilitation, as Tsingtao had called it, relied heavily on a method easily described as torture. If he couldn't take it, if he didn't come back from the brink, then he deserved death. Sure, if he died it was likely she would too… but still.

This… was going to be _fun. _

Hours later when she was led away from his rooms, feeling sick to her stomach at the sound of his screams, she saw Chell. The woman stared at her and her collar with utter horror, before she was led back into her kennel.

Ruby wanted to cry.

_

* * *

_

The kicks in Ruby's abdomen increased in the following few days. But the child… the child was making her mind go numb with a feeling she'd never known. Each kick made her more and more aware that a life was growing inside her. A life that she had to protect more than any other.

For some reason.

At first, sitting alone in her cell after her sessions as the torturer –something she'd quickly found she didn't have the stomach for— she'd thought to disregard the babe. She'd thought to keep it from affecting her. She was still Ruby. She would still destroy the Musk. That was her mission. Her entire life's goal.

But a new one was bubbling below. Damn that it was a bastard child. Damn that it wasn't wanted. Damn it all, but it was hers. Somehow, her desire to protect the thing was beginning to overpower even her desire to slay these people.

'_If you escape, wouldn't it be best to return to Japan? Raise the babe. He's what's important!' _Came a voice, rare now, but this one didn't have an actual tone like the others did. This was more a feeling. Like a strike of conscience. And that made her so happy she could cry. She wasn't insane… the drugs truly were what was at fault.

She was still her. Still Ruby.

She stood, tiredly to the protest of the babe in her and walked to the bars. It seemed ever since that first kick, the thing had been kicking and punching like mad. A Saotome at heart. That's what he would be.

'_He will be if I can manage to get out of here…' _She thought sadly.

It kicked, a softer one, as if in agreement. Good kid.

Feeling in the best health she could ever remember, she bent, and began to do a kata. The plethora of scars marking her body made her scream with each stretch. Each move felt slow, as if her hands waded in jello, not air. Everything was off. Her timing, her movement. Her positioning.

She… she couldn't fight. Not well anyway. She was losing her skill, and trading it for an almost unnatural resistance to pain, to the point that she was beginning to believe she couldn't feel anything but intense torture.

Or intense pleasure.

A collared musk woman was expected to serve her master faithfully. Keep him fed. Keep him satisfied sexually. Make him happy in all ways that a woman could find. She was in the property of Borage by writ of the King, and until either Borage died, or regrew his spine and accepted one himself, all challenges for her were denied.

Normally she would have resided in Borage's rooms, sleeping wherever he told her to. _Living_ however he told her to. However, with him barely able to speak in her presence let alone attempt to order _her_ to do anything, she'd been given a cell nearby his room. It was still in a kennel but the room was nicer, with a stall to sit on, and a bed, well a metal wrack covered with a few cushions. She actually had a window as well.

She hated it. The comfort made her grow placid. Made her anger start to crack as comforts she once would have taken for granted now made her feel like a grateful puppy. Which made her all the more angry. Somehow, she would destroy this place! Somehow…

A sudden kick from the unborn babe shocked her and threw her sideways. She leaned weakly against the wall, sweat pouring down her face from the effort of the exercise and that kick! Damn this kid was strong…!

"You're going to be an incredible kid. I can feel it." She stated, rubbing her stomach soothingly. "And not a whit of that comes from _him._"

The child kicked, in agreement once again she thought.

Silence echoed for a time, and she sunk against the wall, rubbing her stomach. "You know… I can't just keep calling you 'kid.' And if the Musk curse is any guide, you're gonna be a boy, so what should I call you? Kick if you like what I come up with, but not too hard, okay?"

She heard a strange shuffling in one of the other cells but ignored it. It wasn't the doors opening, and it was unlikely that any of the prisoners spoke her language. Not important.

"I've never been much for names. Always figured my wife would… well, I'm here now, and nothing can change that. How bout… Kai?" She asked. No kick. "Veter?"

For that, she received a strong kick that practically sent her tumbling. She laughed. "You're smart too. Just checking."

She rattled off several more names that received no real answer that she could feel hoping she'd stumble on one the child liked. She knew that it must be chance, causing him to kick at the right moments, but sometimes she felt he could actually understand her. Maybe…

"Genma?" She asked, and received a strong yet soft kick. "Oh, hell no." She replied to the thing, glaring down at her tummy in abject disbelief. "Sorry kid, no can do."

At the risk of being cliché, she made another gesture. "How about… Hiro?" She murmured, this time more to herself than the baby, who clearly was out of its mind. Marjoram's drugs probably. No kick, but she liked it a bit. It sounded… symbolic perhaps. Maybe if she never got out of here, he would be. Maybe he'd see the wrong of this place, and somehow destroy it? So many maybes.

"Well… I don't know what I'll call you. Probably need more than just a day to come up with a name, ne?" She joked. Tiredly stood and went to lay on the cot, much more comfortable than the straw she was used to, and stare up at the ceiling. The small bit of moonlight filtering in through the window. Lightly, she began to hum.

She didn't know what the song was, only that she remembered it from the deepest recesses of her mind. Each note brought the next to forward until she felt she recalled the song in its entirety. She didn't know if it was her imagination or not, but as she drifted into a mildly peaceful sleep, she thought her stomach settled a bit.

"You're first child…?" Came a question from a rugged voice in the cell next to hers, that nearly made her fall out of the cot, situated a foot above the ground. Ruby shuddered at how close to Ku Lon the voice sounded. Perfect Japanese, not tinged with the accent Chell had.

"Y-yes…" She replied. She hadn't intended the stutter, but her surprise when she'd thought for a moment of rescue had caused it.

The woman had an older look, as Ku Lon did, but had not inherited the short stature that the Amazon Elder had. She was tall, taller than Ruby even, but she had a feel of age that made even Xian Pu's great grandmother seem young.

"You sound like you will be a wonderful mother. Or would be…" She stated, hissing at the cage this room was.

"I doubt it." Ruby replied, suppressing a knee-jerk 'I'm a guy, dammit' reaction. Somehow she doubted that would be appropriate. She was surprised the reaction was still within her, let alone that she'd had to keep herself from using it.

The woman crept into the moonlight nearer to her, and sat on her own cot. "The ones who doubt themselves are generally the greatest of all." The woman replied, sagely. "You are her aren't you? You're the _Ruby _these ruffians are so hyped up about. The one who freed so many prisoners here." She asked, but it felt more like it was just to confirm something she was already certain of.

Ruby nodded.

The woman smiled, and gave a deep inclination of her head, though not quite a bow. "I, and the Joketsuzoku, are in your debt. Without the escape to warn us, we never would have been prepared for an attack."

Ruby's eyes rose. "You… you were there." She stated, almost in awe. The question that came to her mind first depressed her but she couldn't help but ask it. "Wh-what's it like…? Outside?"

The old woman gave a sad smile. "How long?" She asked simply.

A question Ruby was unable to answer. "I'd guess... a year? Maybe not that long. It feels like decades." It was strange. She'd already practically replaced Ku Lon with this woman. It wasn't even a conscious thing, but she wanted someone older than her. Someone wiser. Someone to give her some form of hope. But she had to be wary… who knew what this could be?

The woman reached through the bars and patted Ruby on the shoulder consolingly. Ruby almost let out a tear. A friend. How long had it been since she had a friend to talk to? How long…?

'_No! What if she's just another tamed Musk acting? What if she—?' _The woman cut her thoughts off with a gentle reply.

"I've heard you killed the master of this horrifying place. A mighty blow indeed. If you ever manage to get free the Amazon's would be honored to have you among their number." She stated, happy to turn the subject away from Ruby's hardship.

"I didn't kill him. But he won't be hurting anyone for a little while at least." Ruby replied. Her? An Amazon…? Ludicrous. "What… what is your name?" She asked. Embarrassment still flushed her cheeks at having been caught talking to a person that didn't really even exist yet. Humming even, but this woman seemed good at flushing away the discomfort of others.

"Oh heavens… I'm called Jai Alai. But these Musk seem to want to refer to me as Latz." She stated with a laugh. "They threaten to torture me for information on our defenses, but my! I'm so old if they tried I'd die on their tables! So their hands are tied! It's very funny really." The woman said mirth lighting her face.

Ruby grinned. She thought she might like this woman.

The door banged open.

_"No!" _Came a decidedly snake-like hiss. "_NO!" _

Marjoram… oh god, not again. She couldn't help but shrink back into the cot. She didn't want to be insane again! She didn't want…

Jai Alai probably thought she was an utter coward. But how could she be anything else…? He was going to…!

"All my work…! All my work and _he_ broke you in _ten minutes! _I won't have it!" The man hissed. "Sending me out to the frontlines so _he could take you!_ Father… I'll kill him, and then you'll be mine! You'll be mine forever!" The man screamed, hatred and what appeared to be downright insanity burning in his eyes so loud that he drowned out the slight shriek of the person he was dragging.

"Aktaya!" Ruby burst. "Y-You—!"

The girl had blood trailing down her legs. Poles jutted from her shoulders and buttocks as she was dragged. The same thing that he'd down to her…

"Month, after month, after month, and you still don't break! It doesn't make sense! How? How could he have forced you to take the damned collar in ten minutes!? Did I— Did I not use enough drugs? Did I not feel good enough for you? Gaaah… I should kill you! I should kill you!"

Ruby barely heard his words. Aktaya… had _poles_ jutting out of her skin. The same stake's she'd used to break out of this place what seemed ages ago.

She was pregnant.

She was probably going to die.

"Submit to me!" Marjoram hissed madly. "Submit or she di—!"

Rage. Rage burned through her greater than any she had ever known. His voice became white noise in the background of her hatred. Her ki flared within her and the manacles fought back. Her ki flared stronger with each breath. The well of power held at bay for so long, boiled.

Marjoram let go of Aktaya and the girl slumped to the ground, blood spattering from her shoulders and buttocks in thick clumps across the stone floor.

He was yelling at her. He was screaming at her to submit to him! Threatening to kill Aktaya, just as Tsingtao had done. He had to die.

He _had_ to die! He _HAD to DIE!_

She felt her ki for the first time in what felt like decades. She didn't even think as her hands folded in front of her, and she crouched.

She watched his eyes widen in shock, as she disappeared from his vision. The Umisenken was a sealed technique. But she needed it now more than ever. Inside she herself was in shock, but that didn't matter. He had to die! He had to! A swipe of her hand and the bars seemed to melt before her, the ki burning through her fingers turning the once unbreakable metal into butter between her fingers.

She flowed around him. He looked everywhere, but he couldn't find her. He would never see her again. He would never see _anything_ again.

Her fingers singed with ki, and the man had only moments of shock before it sliced through his neck cleaner than any dagger. The dull thud of a body, hitting the ground, followed by his head bouncing slowly across the floor.

Abruptly she realized how hard it was to hold even that small bit of ki, as she watched his head roll to a stop, eyes widened in horror, and blood pouring onto the floor.

"R-ranma…?" Aktaya. Her voice was quivering.

Her ki. She had it! Oh god, she could hold her ki again! It… it felt like a spark compared to what it once had been, but now, pushing through all the restraining by every manacle she wore, she could filter that little bit through. She'd killed Marjoram. She was free…

She would be dead, if she didn't break free. Now.

"My god…" Jai Alai breathed. "You… are… _incredible!" _

Jai Alai wore three manacles.

Reason filtered in… Sense. She was incredible. Right. She was _dead. _Unless…

"We… we have to get out of here." She sighed, kneeling down to Aktaya. "Are… god… I have to get you out of here!" She cried. The girl lay on her side. Her stomach was too large to lay on. Her back was… impaled.

She lifted moved to life the girl slowly but Jai Alai interrupted. "Let me free, and I'll carry her. You can use your ki… god I can hardly believe it. You're using ki! With _eight rings! _Hurry… let me free, and I'll carry her, while you kill the guards."

Kill the guards. Yes. She'd have to do that. This was it…! This was it! She was going to be free…!

'_Stupid! Focus! I have to get out of here! Focus!' _She boomed at herself in her mind. Aktaya looked so weak...

She spared a moment to glare at the dead body of Marjoram. The door to the kennel swung wide open, but it seemed no one was outside. The guards were afraid of Marjoram. Could they have run when Marjor—?

"M-Marjoram…?" Came a decidedly nervous voice from outside. "Prince...?"

No time!

She focused the tiny amount of ki into her fingers once more and sliced at Jai Alai's bars. Please god let her truly be an ally.

Relief swept through her when the woman jumped out of the cell, limber and quick on her feat even without her own ki, and knelt to lift Aktaya as gently as a babe itself. The girl made a few wincing moans. Fear crept into Ruby's physic. If they didn't escape then she would have another manacle placed on her. She'd never escape… never…

It fueled her. She had her ki now. A spec of it. With any luck, she could hold on for long enough to get them out.

Her eyes trailed across the cells. The prisoners still locked away, now flinching away from her with the same terror they used to have for Marjoram. Those far back enough that they couldn't see huddling away from what they could hear.

She crouched again, fading out of sight and walking towards the kennels. The Umisenken took the least amount of energy to use. It was her only weapon… and she feared she might have to double her kill count to get out of this place. Every second the manacles threatened to force her ki down. She threw every bit of her ki at them and only receiving a droplet. If that droplet didn't make it through to fill her for even a moment… she would…

"Let's go." She whispered, a disembodied voice, that clearly disturbed even the Matriarch.

The guards peeked in and saw nothing in the dark room.

Their head fell from their bodies with a fourth the power she'd used on Marjoram, and she turned.

She'd learned the layout of this place as well as she could, and she was quite certain of where the exit was. Left. Yet she turned right.

"Come this way, she told the older woman, fading back into existence. "I can't leave… not without Chell."

The woman jerked, almost dropping Aktaya, who was moaning in pain, her eyes glazed with what seemed like the edge of death. "I'll get you out of here, Taya-chan…" Ruby whispered.

Jai Alai seemed shocked at something, but she followed, not saying anything except a sharp, 'Go.'

She went. She flew, ki touching her feet as she flashed at speeds she could hardly remember. The old woman kept up barely, rushing down the long hallway as fast as she could. Left. Right. Right. Two guards stared at her in utter shock as she popped around the corner, and she stopped, fading from existence again.

Their shock was the last expression left on their faces as the two bars once part of her cell door, sliced through their chests, then bashed their teeth in to silence any noise.

She faded back in. "This is the one." She stated, relieving the guard of his keys, and turning opening the door to the kennel. "I'll be right back."

She flashed into the room, her head searching left to right as quickly as her feet moved. So many faces, shocked, staring at her in amazement, but she couldn't focus on them. God how she wanted to! Many had been recaptured from the first escape. But… Chell. And she had to get Aktaya to safety. Somewhere she could be healed… somehow.

Almost at the very end of the long room, she spotted a shimmer of green hair. Stopping, she looked the woman up and down. A few new scars, on her face surprisingly. A few bloody wounds. But it was definitely her.

Her shock was complete, but Ruby had no time.

"Come on. We're escaping. Marjoram is dead, Aktaya is dying." That seemed the pertinent information.

She sliced the bars and caught them before they clattered to the ground, making Chell's eyes go even wider than before.

"Here." She stated, offering one of the poles to her friend.

"It's… it's really you! God… I thought you were… Were…!"

Ruby smiled. She was about to speak when a frantic voice interrupted her.

"Hurry!" Jai Alai yelled from the end of the kennel. "We don't have much time!"

Ruby agreed… but she did have enough time for one thing. She ripped the brown collar off her neck and flared her ki once more, burning it to shreds.

Moans of desperate people begging her to let them free as well followed her, though not as many as there once had been. Moans. Pleas. They burned her soul, but she could not risk it. Aktaya…

As soon as Chell came into the open light, Jai Alai gaped. "Chell! By the gods, you're alive!"

The green haired woman gave a small smile. The two obviously knew each other. "I might be… Soon!" Her eyes trailed to Ruby, and awe filled them, making her extremely uncomfortable.

"Jai Alai is right. We've gotta hurry! Run!" Ruby exclaimed taking off like a bullet.

Chell gave a nod and followed.

And they ran. Back the way they'd come, Ruby felt shock that no one had appeared. The dead bodies lay there, still quite dead. They rushed by. Down a flight of stairs. Another to the lowest level, ruby opened the door.

A blade sliced down at her, imbedding itself in the wall, her only barely dodging it as she rounded a corner, and she glared. Into the eyes of Galm.

He was as shocked as she, his own lightning reflexes having been the only thing that had made him swing that blade in the first place. He stared down at her in shock. Then, he grinned. "_You…!" _

His sword wrenched from the wall and swung down, slicing the skin of her shoulder as she failed to dodge.

Invisibility trumped all, and she suppressed the existence of her body, from his eyes. "N-no!" He gaped.

The bloody pole thudded into his side, bending him over, and the other, in her other hand, bashed his skull, sending him sprawling to the ground unconscious. She would have killed him… but there was no time!

"Come on!" She barked, dashing away towards the exit once more. It seemed an eternity that they ran, Aktaya's moans spurring their tiring feet. Ruby burned with the effort of holding on to her ki, and began to use it only to add to the piling trail of dead guards left in their wake.

'_Haven't I done this before? Déjà vu.'_ She thought black humor splitting her conscience, knowing that this moment was the difference between a lifetime of enslavement and freedom.

Chell still seemed shocked, her feet moving without thinking, and Ruby couldn't blame her.

Abruptly, the exit to the building appeared in front of her.

Ten guards stood in front of it, staring at the running trio skeptically.

Without warning, Jai Alai gave a giant scream, drawing their attention to her.

Ruby faded, and Chell dashed forward in front of the elder, bashing the first guard in the face with her pole.

The next was ready. Slicing down with a giant mace, his eyes widened in horror when an invisible force blocked his swing from hitting the green haired girl. The next guard suddenly flew against the wall, slumping to the ground in a heap, and Chell's pole slashed menacingly, the sharp end slicing the mace-wielder's eyes out.

He screamed flailing the spiked instrument wildly, and it almost swung into the next guard, who wielded a giant pike.

This man was better. He warded off the mace like lightning, bashing the blinded man with his foot to get him out of the way, and then backed off to fight against a force he couldn't see.

A hole appeared in his neck to the others around him, blood spurting, horrifying them all.

Jai Alai was not idle. Even carrying the girl, she was an Amazon Matriarch. She flung the first man's weapon, a small dagger, forward to slice into another's neck. Or tried to. It bounced of his skin as weapons commonly did against Musk, but it gave Ruby the time to shove her other pole through his heart.

Six men fell, leaving four left.

They turned and fled at a dead run.

The doors swung wide open.

"Free…. Were so close! We're so… close." Ruby murmured, in shock.

Who would have thought? Just like that…? A twig of the tree that her ki had once been returned to her, and these men fell like bugs!

Ruby's breathing was ragged, and Jai Alai gave Aktaya delicately to Chell. Both women were breathing hard. But neither slowed. Moonlight touched them, and felt like waves of a burning new world. Outside. Had it been only ten minutes ago that she'd been dreaming about what the outside was like…?

_'You aren't free yet! Keep going!'_ She thought harshly.

"Follow me! I know the way." Chell uttered hastily under her breath as she took the lead. Aktaya's moans seemed to grow weaker. The darkness hid them well as they flew. Not towards the town, but towards the mountains.

'_Hold on, Aktaya. Hold on…!' _Ruby thought weakly.

Flying, they made it to the woods, flashing through bushes quickly. Ruby tripped once or twice on the rocky, root filled terrain as trees began to cover all of her surroundings, but luckily Jai Alai, and Chell did not.

Ten minutes passed before they began to slow, finally thinking they were in the clear. No shouts echoed behind them that they could hear, but that wouldn't stop any of them. They kept moving as hard as they could, tired limbs beginning to fail them all.

A figure fell from the sky landing harshly on the rugged terrain, and Ruby stopped dead.

No… _NO! _

Herb stood from his landing and turned to stare at her folding arms across his chest.

It seemed hours they stood there. Hours. Her eyes stared into his. All the times he'd been her savior. All the times he'd kept her from death, or from insanity. All those times… Just for him now to…

"Herb…" She tried to say. What words were there…? No amount of ki she could filter through these manacles could slam a pole through _his_ skin. She wasn't sure she could do it at full strength. He could wrap them all in ki and _float_ them back to the prison. But… she had to try. She was so close! She had to try!

"_GO!" She _exclaimed, dropping into the Umisenken once more. Her limbs burned. Her ki burned! She wouldn't be able to do this again… But even so, with all her might she flung the left pole at Herb as fast as she could, the other swinging from a different angle in her right hand, in the hopes of bashing him across the face with it.

Herb caught the first pole, spun around her, invisible or not, and caught her wrist. With almost childlike ease, he placed her arms behind her. Chell and Jai Alai had not moved! Dammit…!

"How did you find us…?" She demanded. She would go down fighting! God why weren't they running!

The man grinned. "My brother's head lying on the floor tipped me off." He said. Suddenly, her hands were freed, and she stumbled away.

"Go, Ranma. Get away from here. And… I'm sorry. I doubt you could ever forgive me… but I'm sorry." He said, slowly. "No one will follow you this way for at least two hours. You can make it to Kinagoda in about two days if you travel hard to the south. Good luck."

Ruby was… touched she supposed. He hadn't helped her escape but… well maybe he had.

She inclined her head slightly. "Th… thank…" She couldn't finish the statement. She should be angry at him. He'd gotten her into this in the first place! Hell she would still consider herself a man if not for him! But, for the life of her, she could feel nothing but pure gratitude. "Thank you… Herb." She stepped away. A bit further, giving one last look. And took off at a dead run after her two friends, who had finally decided to run.

She… she was free. Oh god. She was finally free. Tears of joy trailed down her face as she realized that she'd truly escaped. Naked save for the manacles, yet blissfully collarless, her feet stumbling on rocks and roots, her shoulder burning from the slice of Galm's sword, she was free.

It was a miracle.

Now if only Aktaya managed to live…

**End Chapter Six**

**Author's Notes: **Well, freedom finally came. Are you happy? I hope so. This chapter was fun as hell to write. Personally thought I struck gold on the Olia scene, and I almost wanted to keep Ranma in for a while longer so I could have a scene or two with her being told to make a garden. (hah!)

Hope you all are satisfied there. The end might have been a bit rushed. Still I'm pretty proud. Can't wait to hear from you all, and I hope you appreciate this speedy chapter!


	8. Bits of Humor

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Seven  
Bits of Humor**

_We fled. We finally escaped. But everything in me wanted to go back to that place. To go back to the valley of the Musk, and recover my lost child. The girl barely even knew who I was. Vague recognition that I was a woman she would have called 'mother' in another life. Insanity? Maybe._

_Ruby had broken through all the weight of eight manacles shackling away Her Ki. Eight! So… surely it was only a matter of time before I broke through my single Clail, right? And so I began to train with Her. I would save my daughter from that hell hole. I would save her. And find my other daughter Xian Pu. She would be almost nineteen... _

_Imagine my surprise to learn that Ruby knew her._

* * *

Bandages crafted of torn cloth, the Amazon elder Jai Alai being the only one who actually wore any, had been wrapped firmly around Aktaya's wounds, yet unfortunately, the bars were still imbedded deep within her skin. The girl was unconscious; she had been for the past two days, and carrying her was difficult for all of them. Avoiding agitating the poles grafted into her to make sure the wounds didn't start bleeding again was almost an exercise in futility, and one couldn't simply sling her over their shoulder. She was pregnant! Still, Ruby would be surprised if the babe lived, though she couldn't take the chance of handling Aktaya as if it were already dead.

"How much further will it be…?" Ruby asked tiredly, climbing up yet another of the practically vertical rocky crags that separated the Musk valley from the rest of the world. She stumbled, her wounds, her shoulder in particular where blood still seemed to trail down her arm made her want to scream with the effort of not screaming.

"Not far now. We should be there soon, at this rate. Just a few more mountains." Jai Alai responded, just as much weariness tingeing her own voice. The three manacles older woman wore seemed to shuffle a bit, not clinking around like hers did. It was hard to keep them silent, but she did her best.

Aktaya hung loosely about Chell's shoulders, a few paces up the steep slope. It was not quite a cliff, in that Ruby could still stand straight without putting her hands on the ground, but only barely. Rubble gave plenty of footholds at least, but the going was rough, especially with the girl about to die.

Somehow though, she had held on, her mouth idly chewing on berries that they had found to eat in the days since their escape.

"Ruby… can you carry her…? I'm going to drop her if I go much longer." Chell murmured, more weakly than Ruby would have believed, upon reaching a small outcropping of flat ground amidst the sparse trees that could only barely survive near the top of such mountains.

Ruby nodded wearily. She'd held the girl the most of the trip by far, and had no compunctions about carrying her the whole way if necessary. If only that damn scout had stopped to help them! She spotted the woman, and the stupid girl darted off into the woods leaving them to trudge on. Leaving Aktaya no better off than she had been.

God but she was tired. Her footing was no longer all that sure, but it would have to do. She could make it… Just a few more miles. Just… a few more.

Aktaya. She loved the girl like the younger sister she'd never had. She would have run the whole distance barefoot over coals if Aktaya came out alive…

Though, running barefoot through these harsh mountains was little better.

The skies blackened with the look of an oncoming storm, and Ruby truly hoped they would reach this Kinagoda before the skies rains broke free. Their escape, their freedom, still kept them all in high hopes, though considerably less so Jai Alai. The woman had been captured for no more than a week at the most, only just having reached the valley shortly before, and had not undergone torture.

Ruby found herself scorning the freedom the woman had so easily attained. As if she had made all her efforts seem worthless, by escaping mere days after her capture, while she'd been detained for what was surely years.

The emotion unsettled her but there was little she could do about it.

Slowly, ever so slowly, they reached the crest of the mountain, each step utter agony under her own weight and the effort of not disturbing Aktaya's slumber. Cuts on her feet burned more by the minute. Wounds she hadn't realized she'd taken during their escape bludgeoned her now, and thorn bushes unable to be avoided by the think mountain brush cut at her.

But there, at the top of that mountain, Ruby saw her first view of freedom, and finally it all seemed worth it. The city below felt like a symbol. A true accomplishment. She was here. She was free. And she would _never_ wear a collar again. The sun shining down from just behind the edge of a building storm, the late rays of morning highlighting the gleaming walls that represented safety and hope made Ruby want to cry. Things she had only dreamed of once.

Things that were finally within her reach.

It all felt so unreal.

"We've made it." Chell breathed.

Commotion began to echo from the village not moments after it came into view. Sentries spotting a small group of four women climbing down the mountainside, or perhaps that scout who had returned already.

High wooden walls, defended on each of seven corners by guard posts with archers numbering in hundreds. Woman with spears, and axes, and weapons Ruby had never before witnessed seem to flood the streets below in the hundreds; in thousands.

Patrols of some sort began filtering out of great gates, that seemed small from here. Perhaps twenty woman each. Three of them, and all three turned towards the mountain they now descended from.

"I hope they're friendly…" Ruby murmured. "Last time I was with the amazons I was given a kiss of death."

Both women blinked, but Ruby refused to elaborate further, pushing on ahead of the two, towards the patrols.

It took perhaps five or ten minutes for one of the Amazon patrols to make it most of the way up the mountain, the other two having split up to cover different mountains.

"Up here!" Chell exclaimed, as loudly as she could. There was only a slight croak in her voice, and how she managed it Ruby couldn't fathom. Then again, Chell had few wounds, while she might as well have been a living example of how much human blood could decorate a forest floor.

Well… perhaps not _that_ bad. Consciousness was a fleeting thing though. Still, she held Aktaya. As long as she did that, there would be no sleep. Not until Aktaya was safe.

Each step burned her bare feet, but she walked on slowly, stumbling downwards now towards the village. She was going to make it.

Black began flickering around the edges of her vision as minutes trailed by at what seemed a snail's pace.

"Ruby…? Are you alright child…?" Jai Alai asked at one point, but Ruby barely heard her. Keep walking. Step, by step. Don't prod Aktaya's poles. Step.

Without warning she stumbled, and to her horror, she crashed to the ground, skidding face first down the side of the mountain, dropping Aktaya to fall, her poles skidding against the ground.

'_Aktaya… I'm sorry.'_

Darkness took her as a pain-filled scream erupted in her ears.

* * *

Herb was mildly annoyed, but at the same time, very worried. She walked slowly hoping to lengthen the time between now and her father's summons, but she knew it was utter stupidity. The man knew _everything._

Or at least he seemed to. Herb had never been able to get away with the smallest lie, but now she had to somehow manage to keep the man from knowing it had been she who helped Ruby escape. Hopefully now, she would be able to do the impossible. Lie to the King.

And the best way to do that was to bend the truth. Never lie, just leave out the whole truth. It was the only way Herb had ever managed to best her brothers when she was younger. Her mind and her wit were paramount. Now hopefully, the king would slip between it as well.

Still, she had some time left, so she walked through the gardens of the common folk. Something she'd only done perhaps twice in her life, unprovoked anyway, and already she was beginning to regret it.

"BOOBIES!"

Herb's punch, sending her attendant skyrocketing to crash into a nearby building shaking the thing's very foundations, left Herb feeling rather satisfied. She wanted to hit something and Lime had luckily given him the perfect opportunity.

Men younger than seventeen seasons were not allowed into the gardens, woman being distractive pieces of furniture that could detract from the duties of a soldier. Thus, the great valleys where women made their gardens were barred from most young men. They, instead, were sent to live in the barracks almost from birth, and were not allowed to visit the valley save for on urgent business or some other matter, until they came of age and were allowed to challenge for a wife from the kennels.

While Herb had been exempt from this rule, her two companions had not been. Hence, Lime and Mint, still young, were utterly obsessed with women's breasts.

Herb had taken in the teachings as a youth. Believed them to a degree, but failed to understand their logic. How could woman be little more than furniture when the Musk and the Amazon's had been warring for no less than six hundred years?

The curse only further proved the lie. Her brothers, now weaker than she as a male, still feared her as a female. They did not resort to poking fun at her for the curse, as he might have once expected them to do. Well… they did. Just not to her face. Instead they actually became _more_ wary around her.

Curiously, the effect extended to her Father in a small way. He seemed more… aloof. More distant whenever she had no hot water close at hand, as if he just might be speaking to a traitor. But surely not. Sexism aside, Jusenkyo did not change who one was inside. Tsingtao of all people should have known that. Still the wary eye he kept on her when speaking of the war, or his plans for the future was a tiny piercing needle getting ever closer to impaling her heart.

It hurt to know that the form she wore could affect him so.

"Herb-sama! This place is full of women! Can we take one…? Like we did in Japan? They are all so beautiful…" Mint's face was pounded swiftly into the ground soon after, and Herb wished for the hundredth time that her curse had the same effect on her two attendants as it did on her father.

"I'm… sorry… Herb-sama. You're of course, more beautiful than they are…" Mint croaked from the ground. "Woman, like to be told they're beautiful… right?"

The small creaking as his face crushed under her foot, his limbs flailing comically, restored a good bit of her ever failing mood. The tower loomed overhead now. Normally she found the shade relaxing, and enjoyed sitting beneath its shadow. Now it felt like a colossal gateway signifying her guilt.

_'I wouldn't have done anything different. Were I in Ranma's place, I would have become Ruby, and slain every Musk I could to get free of that place. If I were even that strong…' _Herb thought, giving a look over toward the Kennels. No matter how ominous the tower looked, that place had begun to put a dread in her heart that she'd never known before. _'And were I in the same place as last night, I still would let her free.' _

If anyone deserved freedom it was Ranma. The man had bested her in combat, risked his life to save her from the collapsing mountain. And what had she done to repay him? Locked his curse once again, and turned him into a tortured soul. Taken away his very name.

The needle that punctured her heart, grafted of her father's newfound wariness was as nothing next to the thought of Ranma's tears that day. The red-haired girl's emotion had burned his soul. And if he were to be honest, he had made an escape plan to get her away that very night.

"_I… I am broken. Herb." _The words sent a cold chill running down his spine, and his throat clogged with guilt bearing down on him.

'_She is free now; there is no use in feeling guilty about what you can't change.' _Herb thought to herself, as she began to walk up the steps into her father's palace.

Realizing that her two cohorts were not following her, she turned abruptly. "Oh get up you layabouts! You're here for your coming of age. You might as well at least _try_ to act like adults."

Two low moans greeted her, followed by scraping as Lime pulled himself off of the side of the building he had slid down, and Mint pulled himself out of the small crater his body had formed in the ground.

With a sigh, Herb opened the doors.

It was a quick walk, but it seemed to take hours to Herb's mind. She was, admittedly, a bit frightened of what her father might know. What he might not know.

Did the man care about Marjoram? Herb knew Tsingtao had always disdained Marjoram's sly way of fighting, brought on by his weak birth from a snake mother, but even he had a grudging respect for it. Poison could sometimes do what all the fists in the world could not.

That disdain carried on to Herb, and no one could have been more glad for Marjoram's death, save perhaps the prisoners.

They reached the Grand Hall, and Herb turned to his two attendants. "Go to the Ferring Grounds, and wait there, until I or someone else comes for the ceremony."

"Yes, Herb-sama!" They chorused. As they turned however, Herb stopped them.

"Lime. Mint." He stated, silently. The two turned back to look at her, but Herb couldn't find the words. After all, how could one ask their guards if their opinions of her changed based on her form? It… wasn't a comfortable question. And here wasn't the place.

"Never mind. Go. I will see you at a later time. Good luck." Herb stated, turning towards the massive doors where her father resided.

Steeling herself, taking a massive breath, she opened the dark wood doors, idly admiring the gargoyles and fixtures carved into them and lining the pathways.

She was surprised to find the room only dimly lit by a few candles, instead of the massive lighting given off by the whole horde of them that the room supplied. Tsingtao was normally a very boisterous, and usually cheerful man.

Not so today, it seemed.

Herb approached and quickly discovered that Tsingtao was kneeling at an alter. A large coffin resided on it, and a rather terrible stink wafted across Herb's nose as he approached.

"Fath—!"

A splash of water, hot flushed over him, and he felt the shift to his male form. "Don't talk to me in that scum form, _boy!" _The king barked hatefully.

"I… I'm sorry father." Herb stated.

The man's eyes twitched back to view him for the first time, and Herb cringed. In the dim candlelight he could see tears on the man's cheeks.

Herb couldn't help the pity that crossed his face, along with a bit of guilt. His brother was dead, and he should probably feel the slightest tinge of sorrow at that. But he didn't. Not anymore. And if Borage were to die as well? No. Men such as those sickened him now. The curse had shown him how unfair the world his father wanted was… but…

Tsingtao's hand clenched around his throat before he could see it flash for him. "You think to show your father pity? You're becoming more the woman by the day. Do not betray me, son. I can see the wariness in your eyes. Jusenkyo has seen fit to curse you with your wretched form, but you need not fear me, for that."

Herb's breath caught. All his thoughts on his father's lack of trust. All his worry over a form he could not change. Of course Tsingtao had known. He should have known better.

"What you need fear me for, is letting our little Ruby, _escape, _after she _killed my son!" _He boomed. Herb's head jerked and he burbled as the King's massive arms lifted him and lobbed him across the room, banging into one of the massive candelabras mounted on the walls.

Gasping for breath, Herb coughed and hacked until he noticed the pair of boots below his nose. Still coughing, he looked up to meet his father's eyes. "It… I didn't—!"

"Don't _lie_ to me, boy! You're the strongest among my sons… or you _will be._ I know you let her escape. I know your soft heart has grown fond of the women in the kennels. I _know_ these things. And now Marjoram is dead because of your—!"

"I had nothing to do with Marjoram's death! You say it was Ruby who killed him. How do you know? The captive Amazon elder only wore three manacles. Could it not have been _she_ who slew him? I let Ruby go free, yes, but because she _deserved it_. She bested me. She saved my life. And… you owe her for that, father, as much as I. You would trade me for Marjoram, had she not saved my life, in Japan." Herb ranted. Then bit his tongue, aghast at his own words.

It did seem to bring Tsingtao up short though. "She… _bested_ you? You told me she _almost_ bested you! T'was why I saw fit to shackle her with eight manacles! What… what soft son have I borne? Will you go play in the meadows? Pick flowers!?"

Herb found his own anger at that. "I've little doubt that she could have bested even _you_, father." Cold anger singed his words. "Tired, even not in her proper form, she brought me low. I fell, too weak to move, as the mountain over which we fought itself collapsed around me. And she rescued me, in her kindness. When I woke, she slept beside me.

The King paused. "Then… A debt I owed her. A debt I have repaid! A son's life has been given, in exchange for the one she gave. We are even. If she troubles us no more, then I will have no more fight with her."

It was Herb's turn to jerk in shock, though at what, even he wasn't sure. "That is… you would just leave it at that?"

Tiredly, the king stared at him. Then he turned and walked back to the coffin. "My son has been killed. Another, maimed. And all this with her a prisoner. A captive! If she is now free, I will not lose any more to her rage. And don't be a fool. Amazon Elders don't sever heads."

Herb didn't know how to answer, so he came up with a question. "If… if she fights us?"

The king was quiet for a long time. "If she fights us, we will retreat, and I will deal with her. Personally."

A knot tied in Herb's stomach at that. Ranma… It wasn't in Ranma to run. Ranma would stay and fight to the very end. And an end she would meet. Ranma would never be strong enough to face his father. Herb wasn't sure if anyone ever could.

Tsingtao knelt. "It… speaks for Marjoram's weakness that he let himself be killed in his own prison." The man stated with a bit of a quiver. "His body should be _burned_ not buried, for his shame!"

Herb rose to his feet, pulling a candle out of his hair, and watched his father.

"Go Herb. Leave me to mourn my son. Your punishment for this will be discussed later." He stated, his voice only slightly cracking.

Herb nodded, and moved to the door. As he closed it behind him, he thought he heard the deep sound of weeping.

* * *

Eria was a scout. It was in her nature. It was everything she had been born for. Her eyes were sharper than those of an eagle, and she could run with mountain lions till they fell, exhausted, and keep going. Her hair was short so as not to burden her when she flew across the land. Two weapons adorned her person: A pair of sharp daggers, perfect for short range kills if they were ever necessary, and a buckler that she almost always wore, even when safe in the village, perfect for battering away an attacker.

She could sneak up on the greatest of the elders, and had even managed to do so for the legendary Su Li Din, of Tsukigezoku once. Quite simply, she was the greatest scout among the entire whole of the Joketsuzoku. Likely best in the entire world.

And she'd been spotted.

She'd _never_ been spotted! Not _ever!_ The shame, the utter humiliation she felt now… Would it be better for her to just end her life, so that her family would never know the dishonor she'd laid at their feet?

No. She couldn't do that. She had to tell the council. Tell them a group of four woman approached. One looked strangely like a Tsukigezoku elder. And especially about the redhead… who was able to spot her.

Eria shivered. If it had been the elder then she would have felt at least a bit vindicated… but no. The girl just hobbled by, suddenly jerked her head up into the tree, stared straight at her, and demanded she come down and help!

She shivered again. Her ki had been fully suppressed! It was just not _possible!_

Well ahead of the woman… of the _girl_ who had spotted her by miles now, she approached the gates of Kinagoda, and leapt over them, at point seventeen. A customary scout entrance. Anyone could jump over the wall at that point and not be harassed, if they patted the customary places.

Eria did it without thinking, tears practically leaking down her eyes. How could she look her little sister in the face again? Those big innocent eyes always looking up to her... How could she have failed so?

No. That didn't matter. She was a scout. She had a duty to her village to report this _incident. _God, how it burned! How would she ever be able to show herself at the Schomics? Not that it was likely that there would be a Schomics this year. With the war, and Tsukigezoku on the edge of collapse if the reports spoke truly, who had time for competition? _'Musk bastards…' _She hissed in her mind.

Dashing through the city over rooftops, annoying many people she didn't know, she made her way like lightning towards the Hall of the Elders. Dashing to the ground, not caring to notice anyone she didn't know, ignoring those she did, she blazed up the large column of steps to the main doors.

She burst into the rooms, pushing guards out of her way. They knew her well, and didn't put up much of a fight; otherwise they would have stalled her. They were fighters, after all.

She threw the door closed behind her. Only eight or nine of the ninety seven elders of Kinagoda resided in the chamber, and she was relieved that Tailin was among them. Tailin had been the gentle hand to run to when Eria felt she'd been wronged, or over worked by her instructors as a young girl. She'd been the comforting hand, beside the harshness that honed greatness in Amazons.

They all sat at a corner of the gigantic round table that covered nearly all of the spacious room's interior. A large table indeed to sit ninety seven Elders when in full session. There was a grander room for occasions such as that though, most of the time. Here was where smaller meetings and day to day going ons were dealt with.

"What is the meaning of this, Erialminta?" One of the elder's barked viciously. "You should know better than to—!"

"Quiet, Marith. The girl has been spotted." Tailin interrupted, realizing exactly what had happened from Eria's face alone. The woman _was_ a godsend, and Eria thanked her with her eyes.

A gasp echoed through the small group that honestly made Eria feel a bit better. At least her reputation was known… god this was so humiliating! But the shame of it was quickly forgotten as a barrage of questions began firing at her from the nine elderly women.

"By who?"

"Surely no foul Musk could have…?"

"One of the other village's elders?"

"Are the Musk attacking?"

Eria tried to answer but was never allowed a word in edgewise, behind their avid questions which quickly became bickering amongst themselves.

"The Musk would not attack here! Not while the full brunt of their forces lay at Tsukigezoku!" One irate elder shouted above the din of the rest. Her name was Itiyo. One of the greatest hand to hand fighters of the village, Itiyo instructed almost every fighter class Amazon that existed. A sharp tongue, and a sharper wit, the woman had cast _her_ aside after only a few days of training, saying fighting, the art of frontal combat at least, hadn't been meant for her.

"That kind of thinking will get us all killed Itiyo! We must properly prepare all our defenses for immanent attack!" Said a gruff, Teriga. She was not particularly special in any way. A conservative elder who hated change in every way, the woman preferred to believe that haste was unwise, and over preparation was always prudent. Eria had only really spoken to her perhaps once or twice in her life, though that was her reputation.

Most of the others were like that. She vaguely recognized them, but important information such as this was to be reported to the council directly. It was possible those four women were the first of another Musk prisoner escape. If so, the elders would need to be the first to know.

"W-we… If I may speak…?" She stuttered, quite plainly trying both to hide her shame and fulfill her duty at the same time. A difficult task as one directly hindered the other.

At a nod from a few of the nine elders, and the voices of those who didn't nod died, she began to speak. "I saw four women, all of them with shackles. A woman who looked to be an elder of Tsukigezoku, she wore three shackles. Also another wom—!"

"Impossible! No elder would let herself be captured by Musk scum." Broke in an elder whom Eria didn't know. She seemed to have the same skeptical temperament as did Marith."

"I only report what I saw, Goddess's truth." Eria replied, before another elder could break in.

"Go on child. Marith will hold her tongue." Tailin, said softly though her eyes, glaring at the other elder showed a level of scorn almost akin to hatred.

Eria nodded. "I saw three maiden's, two who had seen perhaps seventeen summers, and a third who may have been in her middle years. One of the younger, was badly injured, but the other... There were poles imbedded in her shoulders and buttocks, and she looked on the edge of death. Unconscious, the others carried her."

"And which one spotted you, dear? The elder?" Tailin asked softly.

Eria shook her head ruefully. "No… I… it was the younger. The injured one. I believe they are Musk escapees."

"If another escape happened in the Musk territory than we must be ready. I won't have another mob at my gates in the small hours of the morning." Barked Cheguo. Eria didn't know her personally either, but it was important to know the names of the highest leaders. Cheguo, Liontamer, stood third in the Hall of the Elders. All others save Mai the Fiercebladed, and Athyesa of the Waters, deferred to her.

Eria sometimes wondered at the meaning of their titles, but she'd never seen an elder fight before. No one had, as far as she knew, save for in the last Musk War seventy nine years ago. And the elders weren't considered elders then. Most of them anyway.

"And _you_ are the best scout we have!? What is this village comin—!?" Marith burst, but Tailin interrupted.

"Child, describe these people for me. In more detail. Oh, and Marith, since you seem unable to reign in your temper perhaps you will be glad to see about getting three patrols set up to take the four women and any other escapees they find in as quickly as possible? Good." Tailin, said with a smile and a small nod for the door.

Grumbling, Marith stood, and left the room as Eria began to speak again. "One, the elder, looked much like Itiyo. Tall, slender, with long grey hair and deep green eyes. She was the only one wearing any clothes, but they were ripped and torn."

Tailin looked down, nodding slowly to herself. "Go on, child."

Eria flinched, as if re-realizing her embarrassment. Still she plowed on through the abysmal tale rapidly so she could get the shame off her chest, and hopefully gain redemption. God how it burned though! "A-another was a middle aged woman. Perhaps thirty, with long green hair. The unconscious one, was small, five summers younger than me. Maybe less. Her hair was brown and cut shorter at about her shoulders. But… the strange part was that she had… _poles_ sticking out of her back and bottom. She'd… been tortured."

"And the one who spotted you…?"

Eria hesitated for a moment, and spots of color began to dot her cheeks even as her eyes began to water. "She… was the same age as the unconscious one. A bit older. She had long, deep red hair, hanging low." Eria gestured with a hand perhaps a foot off the ground. "Her… she was pale, and her body was covered in half healed scars. She wore eight manacles, two for each limb, and she had blue eyes."

Tension seemed to suddenly pile up in the room as elders looked from one to the other. "Wh-what?" Eria asked, confused.

"Child, you have no need to feel ashamed." Tailin said, though her face lay trained on Cheguo. "It's her. Our Ruby escaped, it seems."

"Ru…by?" Eria questioned. "The one the women from the Musk breakout keep speaking of?"

"We believe so. That fits her description very well. If she managed to break free upwards of a thousand prisoners from the Musk's grasp, I would not feel ashamed at all. She must be powerful indeed." Tailin stated. "We will know soon enough."

The words didn't make Eria feel much better, but they did help.

* * *

Aktaya's eyes flickered open to the faint touch of approaching twilight. Stars were beginning to twinkle overhead of wherever she was laying but she had trouble focusing on them. There was pain. Sharp pain in her buttocks and her shoulders burned from where Ruby had dropped her. The pain came in throbs now, sharp jolts that wracked her body momentarily, and then faded back to merely agonizing.

And so now she tried to focus on the stars overhead. And the fact that she was free. Finally, after all this time.

She ached everywhere, but she could tell that it wasn't as painful as it could have been. Not nearly so painful as it had been to feel those sharp, jagged poles dig into her skin. To feel Marjoram grab them and use them as hand holds to prod her around.

No. The agony of now was sweet bliss compared to then.

Memories of Ruby yanking the poles out of her skin one by one flitted through her mind and she shuddered. Ruby was… something else. That was all there was to it.

If only the girl would wake up.

Three days had passed since their miraculous arrival at the Amazon village of Kinagoda. She'd had to be carried in kicking and screaming at the pain of being dropped on the ground, the poles twisting deep into her skin, or so she'd been told. She'd apparently been lucky they hadn't run her through. But after the Amazon's knocked her out, the last she remembered was waking up in bandages.

She turned on her side, and looked over to Ruby, lying on the futon she'd been given in the same place she'd been laying for the past three days.

The red-haired girl seemed so small. Smaller than even she was, which was saying something. But, god, did she admire her. Aktaya had found a new wish in all of this. She wanted to be strong, like Ruby. Strong enough to face anything that happened to her, no matter what future may approach.

She rubbed a hand across her belly, thinking of her coming son. "No matter what…" She murmured to herself.

"Is Ruby alright?" Came a soft scraggly voice of one of the elder Healers. Teriga by name, she was gruff and a bit surly for a woman, but then most of the women here were in one fashion or another, despite their beauty.

"She's breathing if that's what you mean." Aktaya replied weakly. "Other than that… you could tell better than I could."

Slowly she pulled herself up showing as little pain as possible, and failing quite miserably in her opinion. She could still feel the poles sticking out of her back and buttocks, still feel the phantom hands of Marjoram pulling her around by them, with Veter's cold body lying on the floor, still bleeding, eyes wide with horror and shock.

She pulled herself out of the memory and that took even more effort than sitting up had.

"Suppose I could at that." The woman said with a bit of a smile. "Lioness, this one. Got a will stronger than tempered steel from the looks of her. Still can't believe she was actually _carrying_ _you_ with wounds like these." Her smile turned a bit scornful at that. "Honestly believe the other way around if you were an Amazon…"

Aktaya gulped, feeling a bit ashamed. Apparently, even despite the poles, Ruby's own wounds were far more life threatening then hers had been. The poles, meant to cause pain and goodly amounts of humiliation, were not intended for death, or hardly even the risk of death. Aktaya lost surprisingly little blood until Ruby had dropped her. Fortunately healers had been there almost immediately.

"I'm… not as strong as she is. But I _want_ to be." She murmured. "I don't want _this_ to ever happen again, because I'm too weak."

She may be weak, and the Amazons, all of them, could tell it from a glance, but her words did spike a small bit of approval in the elder, if Aktaya didn't miss her guess. "Well, you won't be getting any stronger with that child in you. Musk trash surely but still a child. After you've delivered perhaps we will see how far your conviction holds."

Aktaya nodded. "We will." She stated, assuredly.

Her eyes returned to Ruby. The girl had been clothed now in a small gown that fit her form well, and Aktaya was struck by the strangeness of it. It was so unusual to see the girl… _clothed. _Probably a sickening thought, but still.

_'What would Toya and Saiporu think if they saw me now…?' _She thought idly, recalling her friends from what seemed like another life. _'They probably think I'm dead. My parents too…'_

As her reminiscing continued, she suddenly realized that she'd had a boyfriend when she'd left. To her shock she could barely remember his name. Teku… something? It didn't matter. He wasn't a man. Not like Vet—!

Several amazons jerked their eyes to her in shock as she slapped herself with enough force to make her face bleed. Or at least it felt like it. But she needed it. Damn Musk slave training.

She was willing to admit that Veter had been at least a… not a horrible man. He had treated her well, compared to Ruby anyway. And… watching him die… he deserved at least a fond thought.

But she would die before she thought of him as her master. Somehow she'd managed to avoid that, though with that _awful_ neighbor Olia always prattling on about what it meant to be a 'proper' Musk wife, she'd once thought she might do it just to get the annoying woman to _go away! _

She'd had Veter to thank for that, too. He _liked_ that she wasn't some obedient puppet, and the Musk considered him a _deviant _for that. He liked letting her have her yell about… whatever! Only in private of course. The one time she tried in public she'd never been more embarrassed in her life, but still. There were a thousand things she'd battled with the man like… like a real man and wife.

But it wasn't. It wasn't right. She had still been his slave despite his leniency. His kind heart for pets and furniture. For baby makers. And when he listened to her whining she'd have to be an idiot to not know he was only humoring her. But he hadn't _forced _her to be with him. Not exactly. Subtle threats laced in the form of, "Galm could have taken you, you know?" or, "It's a good thing such a delicate pet like you was taken by someone so kind," had been enough to… _entice_ her to his way of thinking.

It just wasn't right.

She suddenly realized that the elder was looking at her strangely, but she couldn't bring herself to care. After the Musk, she found it hard to believe she would ever be embarrassed again. "I needed it," She stated, referring to her self-slap. And that was the end of it.

"Oooh… My… Hea— er." Ruby suddenly moaned, and Aktaya's eyes jerked to her in shock. So did Teriga's for that matter. She'd stated the girl probably wouldn't wake for another day or two but this was Ruby. Aktaya had come to expect the unexpected from her.

"Lioness indeed." Teriga murmured thoughtfully, but Aktaya barely heard her.

"Ruby! You're alright! Thank god, your alright!" She exclaimed, hovering over the redhead protectively.

"I… where am I…? Did we?" Suddenly her eyes widened. Not from the pain that was surely coursing through her, but from Aktaya herself. The girl turned away, abruptly, shame covering her face. _Shame!_

"I'm sorry… I couldn't stand anymore. I… I'm sorry I dropped you." She whispered, her eyes watering in small bits.

Oh. _That _was why… well. It had hurt like hell… but…

"Oh child, I'll have none of that. Lioness you may be, but everyone has their limits." Teriga burst in as if she'd known Ruby from birth. "Girl is fine now," The woman said with a nod to Aktaya, "And well on her way to bearing a child soon. As are _you_ unless I miss my guess. I do be Teriga. Good to meet the Lioness who escaped the demon's pit."

Ruby hesitated, then nodded. "I… thanks, I think. Where am I…?" She asked, this time facing the elder.

"The Amazon Village of Kinagoda." The woman stated in her gruff voice with a grand gesture. "In the healing ward. Unfortunately with all the escapees from a month or two ago, we're still having to heal people outside."

Ruby sighed, this time with relief. "Many of them did escape. I knew they did…" She breathed. Aktaya shivered. Ruby must be aching to show that much pain on her face. That giant bandage wrapped around her shoulder looked menacing. Then again, she supposed the large patches on her own buttocks and the upper sides of her back were not so small a thing either.

"Hear you had a hand in that, we do, miss Red-head." The woman said to Ruby, a tone of respect dotting her voice. "Those comin with you can't stop speaking about you. Chell! Couldn't believe she was alive. Was an Amazon in Joketsuzoku nigh on five years dead, or so we'd thought. Had the talent for healing back then, but seems to have lost it now." The woman suddenly seemed to catch herself rambling. "But you don't care about this. Probably want food and a warm bath, don't you miss Red-head?"

She hesitated before nodding. "I… thanks." She stated. A bath…? Yeah… she remembered what that was. A bath. Where you dunk yourself in water and wash away all the scum your body get's covered in over the day?

Right. That sounded… marvelous. Though she probably need ten or twenty of them.

Abruptly she realized that she wore a white gown of sorts. She almost gaped. Not at the clothing, nor at the fact that someone had to put it on her. No. She was stunned by the fact that she could look down and not see her own skin. It was… strange. How long had she been imprisoned? How long, to be astonished by clothing?

"I'd like that," She murmured, lowly. Still shocked, and suddenly, a bit itchy.

The woman smiled. "Come with me, if you can stand."

Ruby moved to stand and found that she could do so. Painfully, though it was the pain of healing, not hurting. Soreness, and a massive sting ached at her shoulder. Her feet still felt as if brambles stung them and thorns still seemed to bite at her wrists and ankles, but it was as if it had happened some time ago. Which apparently it had.

Ruby's eyes suddenly found Aktaya's. One part guilt, and three parts joy bloomed on her face. They were both alright. "I'll go with you if you don't mind?"

A sudden blush crept up Ruby's cheeks but it fled before she felt the need to force it down. She'd seen Aktaya naked so many times, seen so many naked women that a bath with them now shouldn't cause her embarrassment…? Right?

God. How was she supposed to live now..? Just go on as if none of it had ever happened.

She shook herself. A question for a later time.

Right now. Bath.

"Sure, Taya." Ruby commented casually as she walked. It started as a hobble but with each step she felt her energy restoring.

"Remarkable…" The old woman noted as she fell into step beside Ruby after a time. "Recover real quick, you do, miss Red-head."

'_Right… recover.'_ Ruby thought. _'Recover. And then… I'm going to fight. I have a vow to uphold.' _

Walking, Ruby finally got her first view of the Amazon village. All in all it looked very much like Joketsuzoku had. Huts of surprisingly complex make when she looked close. Woman, many butch, many beautiful, but _all_ looking as if battle had been born within them. Women sharpened weapons everywhere. Fletchers crafted new arrows for bows, blacksmiths hammered away to create swords and axes and weapons Ruby had never seen the like of.

Elders, few and far between as they were, walked the grounds, inspecting everything and everyone. Classes of fighters seemed to be taught by elders from all over, ten or twenty women performing kata simultaneously. Sparring seemed to litter the streets.

There were men too. Cooking over stoves visible through open windows. Mending clothes. Few of them even sparred with the women on occasion but all seemed just as hard eyed. All seemed just as ready for the war that was coming.

And past every conversation Ruby caught wind of, word fell to her ears.

"Tsukigezoku has fallen."

"The village…?"

"What survivors are there…?"

"Tsukigezoku…"

"Are we going to die?"

"How will we…? If Tsukigezoku already fell how could we stand a chance?"

"At least Su Li Din survived. Seven hundred survivors, and only four were elders... That's all that made it back I heard."

"Are we going to die…?"

The town was the definition of agitation and wariness. Apparently she and her three escapee's had not been the only refugee's seeking sanctuary within this place's walls.

Ruby had learned of the three Amazon villages in prison and had little dreams of one day rallying the Amazons to destroy the entire Musk Civilization. If one had already fallen…

"This is my war…" She whispered. "I have a vow to keep… I'm going to kill him and...!"

Her stomach kicked and she swayed, almost toppling over before the old woman caught her. "Careful now, lass."

In her mind, Ruby winced. _'I'm going to have a child.' _She thought abysmally. _'I can't fight like this!' _

She fought down those doubts ruthlessly. She _would_ fight. She had while she was imprisoned and she would right up until the damn bastard kid was born. And then she'd keep fighting.

"Ranma!" Came a delighted shout. If Ruby had thought Aktaya looked strange in clothing, Chell looked downright surreal. Almost scary in her similarity to Xian Pu, the woman wore a skintight fighting dress stitched with dragons all the way from the fringes that just barely missed skidding along the grass to the surprisingly low neckline.

"Is good to see you… I… er… I mean. It's good to see you!" She stated. Apparently being back in her home had curdled the Japanese she'd learned while imprisoned with Ruby. But not too much though.

"And you, Chell." Ranma grunted. "I'm… glad you're okay."

The woman had a grin the size of a mountain. "I am better than okay! Chell is… _I am_ free! And I touched ki! Like you did! I can reach through the manacle!" She exclaimed in joy.

Ruby smiled, but inwardly she grimaced. She may be free but until these manacles were gone she would be a complete weakling for the rest of her life… "I… that's good."

Chell seemed to catch the edge of depression in Ruby's words. "I… am sorry, Ranma."

Ranma grunted in response as they approached a small copse surrounded on all sides heavily by trees where tubs resting over hot fires resided. Some holding woman who looked on edge even relaxed deep within the waters.

Aktaya seemed on edge too as she watched the elder pull off her stout green robe, and then her underclothes in turn.

"It's alright." Ruby replied to Chell. She pulled off her own clothes, and found herself surprisingly more comfortable.

"I'll just stay out here," Aktaya murmured, as Chell also stripped. "My bandages… it'll… well. I don't want them to have to replace em." The girl stated.

Sound reasoning but Ruby would have to be a fool not to see the apprehension in Aktaya's voice.

As she lowered herself into the water, steaming warm seeping into her skin to feel marvelous even as it touched her wounds and made them burn, she felt herself relax like she hadn't done in what seemed decades.

As she lounged in silence, a slow smile began to creep across her face. She'd gained her freedom. Now, all she needed was strength.

Only Teriga had senses acute enough to witness the small blue aura seeping out from Ruby's slim form.

* * *

Ruby stood in the midst of a large grass clearing. Her eyes scanned the women surrounding her like an eagle with the wariness of a mouse. A large woman, muscles bulging, held a giant halberd that looked as if it could cleave her in two. Ruby, logically, decided to call her Muscles. To her right a girl shorter than even herself wore a bandana over her face, holding two sharp kris. Ruby christened this one as Bandana.

Behind her, two more women closed in. One didn't wield a blade at all but a green sash wrapped around her waist gave her name. The other brandished a saber much like the one Xian Pu had wielded so long ago, and was easily named Sword.

And none of them mattered. Ruby kept a fourth of an eyeball on them as every ounce of her attention resided on the elder standing before her. No weapon, but the elder was without a doubt the most dangerous of her combatants.

"Well! Come on already!" She exclaimed heatedly. "What? You too afraid to throw a punch? Three thousand years of Amazon history's got nothing on me!"

Her taunts produced the intended effect Sash and Muscles. Bandana, Sword, and the elder remained silent as logs.

She felt more than saw Sash dash forward from behind. Muscles was only a moment behind, and it began.

Ruby felt the thrill of battle envelop her as she dodged Sash's first punch, an easy twitched to the left, toward the hulking form of Muscles. Throwing her hand onto Sash's shoulder, the poor woman shocked by the speed she moved with, she bounded into the air, flying high above the swing of the great halberd Sash was forced to dodge.

Ruby's arc as she flipped over Muscles to the left was a thing of beauty in itself, but Ruby was already planning ahead. Her eyes flashed from the elder for half a moment to check on Sword and Bandana, but both had moved. Her eyes jerked back, and she cursed. The elder was gone!

Damn!

A duck quickly avoided the slice of the blade Sword flashed against her, but before the woman could begin another swing, Ruby's fist flew up in a massive uppercut. A short burst of ki stretched her strength through the manacles and her fist connected with swords chin, bashing the woman off her feet into the air. With her limbs flailing, Ruby was only partially aware of the girl righting herself and landing before she was on the move.

Another massive swing from Muscles protected her nicely from the shorter range of Sash and Bandana, but they were hardly a concern for Ruby as she slid gracefully between the monster of a woman's legs. Where the hell was the elder!?

Back to her feet in an instant, she spun a massive round house and boosted it with her sparse bit of ki at the last moment before her foot connected hard with the massive woman's sternum.

To Ruby's delight, the woman flew, lifted from the ground and bashed into Sash, smashing them both to the ground in a heap. Yesterday the woman had only grunted at the same effort and remained standing. She was getting stronger!

Without warning, glyphs began appearing on the ground. A moment of horror filled Ruby as a circle of power surrounded the grass floor glowing with neon blue lights, and she leapt franticly. Just in time, it turned out, as the ground where the circle filled with glyphs erupted, stalagmite's of ice bursting forth from the circle's confines to skewer anything held within.

This elder didn't play around. Ruby sweated a bit frightened but still unperturbed by the display of magic. Other's had used them before. Just… none quite so easily capable of killing her as that one had been.

She had little time to think as Sword and Bandana descended on her simultaneously. Weaving flawlessly between Bandana's lightning fast daggers even as she dodged the rapid swings of Sword's flashing Saber she sought the elder.

No trees. Couldn't be there… were could…?

Abruptly Ruby realized where the Elder had been hiding. Jerking to the offensive, she grasped Sword's wrist and used the blade to block an oncoming dagger swing, shocking the both of them. Then, to add to their shock, she swirled around Sword, and threw her hardest possible punch at the old woman latched to her back.

The woman held up a palm and Ranma's fist _burned_ as it slammed into what might as well have been a steel wall. "OW! Sonofabi—!"

"Stop!" The elder barked loudly, and the Amazon's instantly halted. Then the elder turned her attention to Ruby.

"Ruby." The woman barked in a soft yet firm voice. "This _will_ not do. I… I'm sorry. I _can't _let you fight like this. You just can't hit hard enough. I realize you killed many of the guards in the prison, but now you face _soldiers. _Men who are trained and ready for battle. The guards and torturers are the weaklings of Musk Society!"

"_Marjoram_ was no weakling! I'm going to fight, Mai! You won't stop me!" Ruby barked. She would fight… she would _prove _to this woman that she was strong enough! She would… would…

Without warning the woman's eyes were staring into hers. Despite the woman being as short as Ku Lon, she stood at Ruby's height and bored holes into her with her glare. "I can and will. I'll strap you to a bed if I must, Ruby! You have a child coming. Whether you like it or not, you will not fight as you are now. You _won't." _The tone barked no argument but that wasn't going to fly with Ranma.

"_I _got out of there on my own! I fought and killed—!"

The flash that blasted across Ruby's face stunned her. Her eyes turned slowly back to the elder, shocked at the intensity of the woman's slap, and the fact that she hadn't even seen it coming. "You would risk your unborn child's life, just for a chance at a revenge you have already acquired?"

"I… I swore I would kill—!" But Ruby was interrupted again.

"Yes, I know all about your vow. Tsingtao would flay you alive. You killed Marjoram. His weakest son, by luck, and you know it. You escaped _with_ the girl you made you vow for. She is safe… you have lost _nothing!_ No. You have only gained. The blood of dragons runs through the veins of your coming son. You _have_ _gained!_ Why do you insist on throwing it all away?" The woman spoke with a passion that Ruby had never heard. The woman almost had tears in her eyes.

"I… I don't… I… He…" She couldn't respond. Why…? Why _did_ she want to kill Tsingtao so badly? Why did she want to destroy the Musk to its very core?

She could never forgive them… but already she was beginning to forget after only a matter of weeks. The touch of Musk knives was gone from her bones. The memories faded, and those that didn't she forced from her mind with an intensity that would have crafted an aura around her that would burn for miles.

But why? She'd been raped. So had many women. She was not so special. The men who had done the deed, most of them anyway, had perished, or surely worse in Borage's case. So from where did her thirst for vengeance stem?

"Put down your bloodlust Ruby!" The Amazon boomed. "Or it will consume you."

A long time Ruby remained silent. A long time she stood staring into the eyes of the old Amazon, wracking her brain for the reason her hatred was so great. After moments that seemed hours her mind found her answer. And then, slowly, she shook her head.

"No… I'm sorry. I can't." She stated.

"You fool of a girl! I—!"

"What the Musk are. Their entire race. Their very _existence _is _wrong." _Ruby stated, her passion rivaling the master grand elder. "I… don't claim to care about justice or crap like that. But… the Musk need die. No. They need to be wiped from the face of this world. I will eradicate them, or die trying."

Another long pause, before the old woman gave a final sigh, and turned away. Slowly, she began to walk away from the training ground, the other Amazon's rising to follow her. "And die you will, girl."

Ruby's response was instant and true. "Maybe. But this is something worth dying for."

Another long pause. "Goddess above, but I hope you change your mind when you look into the eyes of that son you're carrying."

Ruby gulped. At one time, she would have denied even caring about her growing son. But each kick gave him a bit more of a face. Each rumble of her stomach made her feel just a bit more attached. And… at the end of this road, she didn't have a clue what lie.

"I… may at that." She said, as the elder disappeared into the trees.

"You… are an amazing fighter. Goddess send that you regain your power." Sword stated with a glance towards Ruby's manacles. "I admit I would be terrified to face you without those."

"I as well." Sash stated.

Muscles only grunted.

Ruby returned a smile. "Thank you." She stated, towards Sword. Then, to Sash, she stated. "You need to fight lower. Attack the legs more. You're small. You should use it! Fight low, instead of standing tall all the time. After all, no one's going to hit you if you're below their line of vision." She tried to make it sound a tip, but couldn't help but feel she was playing at instructor.

The girl grinned though and took the criticism with glee. "Thank you, Ruby! I'd be glad to fight you again tomorrow. And then I will win." She claimed. Ruby couldn't help but smile, at the cheery yet spirited determination in the other woman.

"I hope you d—!"

Ruby stopped dead.

It wandered warily around. Darted a little closer. Ruby couldn't move her eyes from it.

"Ruby…?"

Ruby couldn't hear their words as the thing approached. A beast. The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end. Goosebumps rose all over her body.

To her horror, the beast suddenly turned its attention onto her.

'_Meow.' _

A small, simple, sound. A weak sound. Her ears even registered that she shouldn't be afraid of it. But she was. A meow, but to her it was the roar of a beast more terrifying than even Borage could be. Ruby's fear climbed in spades. A small thing, calico, striped black and gold, it crept towards the group.

Ruby took a step back.

It stepped forward.

"G-get away…" She whispered.

It hopped a bit closer. Cutely, it's attention suddenly distracted by a nearby butterfly.

"Ruby…? Is something wro—?"

The cat leapt and caught the yellow butterfly in its paws, curiously playing with the small bug.

Ruby saw a thousand hungry cats, each clawing at her skin, biting her. Starving. Feasting on her flesh. Blood dribbled across her eyes. Her vision blurred. She screamed for help but no one answered. Claws! Cutting her. Biting her! _Eating her!_

She turned and ran, letting loose a scream that could wake the dead, tearing through the Amazon village like a whirl wind, terror decorating her features. All she could see was the pit.

And darkness.

The cat gleefully began to follow her.

* * *

Ruby glared hatefully at Aktaya and Chell. "It's not funny." She stated.

Aktaya tried and failed to stop giggling. "It's… kind of funny, Ruby." The girl stated, laughing down at her.

Ruby wiggled. She was strapped in chains to a bed. The same bed Mai had threatened to strap her to during their most recent battle. Apparently, fear of cats was too big of a weakness. Ruby felt utterly humiliated, and she couldn't help but damn her idiot of a father for the millionth time.

She'd thought that perhaps her time in a prison, her time beneath the knife, spent naked in the dark would have hardened her against her fear of cats. It had not. Just seeing the thing had brought her right back to her childhood, right back into the body of a small six year old boy, terrified and alone and trying desperately not to become the meal of monsters, their claws raking through his skin.

"It's… kind of… _Ironic._ Yeah. Ironic." Aktaya stated, through fits of giggles. "How… how could… hehe… Ha hah hah!" Her words were lost as another fit of laughter brimmed around her, and Chell joined her in the giggles.

"This isn't fair!" Ruby exclaimed. "I have every right to fight them! She can't do this to me! Please…? Come on, just let me out of this thing!"

It was no use. The two were still laughing. Aktaya had the nerve to double over and brace herself on the side of the bed. Jerk!

Ruby hadn't gone into her cat mode, thank god. But it had been a close thing. The damn cat just wouldn't stop following her! By the time it did she was a quivering ball of fear. And _that_ had been enough to make Mai 'the damned' Fiercebladed pull out the bed and strap her to it, as the Amazons left to march and meet the approaching army where battle would be best for them.

Ruby sighed. If anything, this only made her more determined to fight.

She would fight.

But… as it became apparent that her two friends were not going to stop laughing, a smile began to cross her own face. It… really _was_ a bit funny. And now that she was free, she was allowed a bit of humor.

If only it weren't happening to _her._

**End Chapter Seven**

**Author's Notes: **Well, hopefully that was a bit humorous. This chapter was a little bit lighthearted.

Next chapter we dive back into the darkness.

By the way, Special thanks to Bookworm! At first I didn't like the song you gave stating that this fic reminded you of it. But I listened to it, and it's now inspired no less than three scenes this fic is going to have. So danke!

Well. That's all I guess. Expect more of Rapture and/or Last Day to come out next.

Oh, and **Please leave a review!**

**Till Next!**

**MB**


	9. Small Hands

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Eight  
Small Hands**

_Aktaya's baby was born on the crests of winter's approach, and the child affected Her in ways even I was unprepared for. Ruby began to soften a bit. Her anger at the Musk began to fade... slightly at least. Her wish to destroy the Musk, to kill Tsingtao and all his sons and his entire kingdom began to fade. News of war on the horizon kept Her on her toes though. The armies of Kinagoda, what little they were, had been sent to aid the fallen fighter village of Tsukigezoku back to the safety of Kinagoda's walls, and rumors began to float back to the village. _

_Tsukigezoku's Amazons were dead, and the Musk army grew ever closer with the eldest and strongest son of the king, Mace, to lead them to victory once more. No, the Amazons had dealt the Musk a great blow and destroyed a mighty portion of their army. No, both armies had suffered incredible losses, including the deaths of Su Li Din _and_ Mace. No, both armies were alive and strong and still battling in the forest of Systied._

None knew what exactly had happened. But as we waited, I watched Ruby's hate grow blunted by new emotions. Fear for her future child began to take over her. Fear and an unusual paranoia to become strong enough to protect the unborn babe, as well as Aktaya's. And so she trained. Fighting me. Teaching Aktaya. Fighting Amazon elders. Her ki growing all the time. 

_Preparing the war that was to come.  
_

* * *

Ranma sighed dismally as she stepped down from the stand, and out of the limelight, listening to the echoes of cheers from below. She was just so _tired_ all the time now, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Damn stupid Chinese, electing _her!_

How the hell was she supposed to run a country? What, did they think the fact that she could fight gave her instant knowledge of the workings of buying grain and rice and getting trade back online with foreign nations? Did they think the ability to bring down a tyrant immediately meant that she knew exactly how much power should be distributed and to where from each power plant, dam, and wind-farm? Did they think that she was gifted with the powers of budgeteering upon her election!?

Apparently so.

And now she was getting desperate to pass the reigns of this nation on to someone else. She'd thought she really could handle it. The ambassadors from Japan, a very good idea she'd thought at the time, were now making her so homesick that she could hardly fathom it.

Akane was dating Mousse, with a baby on the way. That made Ranma want to laugh. Xian Pu and Ryoga? Now there was a pairing she'd never have expected. And she had a baby sister now! Named after herself at that!

That alone was probably enough to make her homesick, but there was more. Ukyo looked so lonely, and Ranma could do nothing about that. She was quite thoroughly off the fiancée market. Tofu and Kasumi seemed so… different. Kasumi was a cynical little prick, but somehow her motherly moments seemed to shine through whenever Ranma least expected it. Tofu seemed to act like a pacifying hand for her at times, strange as that was.

But the one Ranma missed most was... Well, she was back home in Japan now. God, but how Ranma missed her. She'd never wanted the reins of power. Hell she'd never even wanted to be famous. Not really. But she had duty now, to the people of this New China. And she couldn't simply turn her back on that and follow Aktaya back to Japan. She had to make it whole again. Only then could she rest.

Idly she realized where her feet had carried her. Her guards, both nameless men that had a decent amount of skill about them, one a gunner, one a fighter, had stayed outside her rooms. She was in her bathroom, though for the life of her, she couldn't recall the walk there.

She sighed, and turned the hot water faucet on. Strange how the Musk had adapted normal customs such as plumbing and electricity so easily upon their takeover. They'd been a smart lot, Ranma had to give them. Quickly taking in what they liked. Discarding what they did not.

Pity that bomb had never worked on them. Pity for the millions who'd died for the king's ambition. Pity more for those who had died for her revenge. At least the ambition had a goal. She shook herself, running her hand under the faucet to wait for the hot water. This was not the time to be self loathing.

Ranma had been so busy with getting China back online, so tired of hearing "Empress this," and "Emperor that." All she wanted… all she _needed_ was someone who knew her as simply _Ruby._ It made need burn in her chest. Only a month or so gone since she'd last seen the girl, but it had been a scene to remember. One that had been well worth every bit of blood she'd lost.

Slowly, her thoughts began to drift…

* * *

"Oku… are you out here?" A thin man asked, as he strolled slowly out onto the balcony. Night covered the sky, but only a few stars were visible through the gorgeous view of the city at night. Twenty seven stories off the ground, the view of downtown Tokyo was magnificent.

He fingered the hem of his bathrobe as he looked around. It was pretty late and he had to wake up early tomorrow.

Searching slowly, he saw nothing, but his ears caught the sound of a small whimper. He turned, and found his wife there in the corner, huddled in her favorite balcony chair. She was crying. And no doubts as to why.

"Honey…" He sighed. "I—!"

"Why don't you seem to care!?" The woman screamed.

"Honey, I do care! It's just… she's been gone for almost two and a half years now." He murmured. It felt cold hearted even to him, but he wanted her to move on. She just… _had _to.

"You go on like nothing's happened, Soeji! Like she didn't even exist! How can you—!" The woman rambled senselessly. It was nothing she hadn't said before. Nothing that she wouldn't surely repeat.

"Stop it! Can't you just stop! Can't you see that we have to forget her!? It's tearing us apart, Oku-chan… It's…!" He stopped struggling to find the words, his heart bursting, spewing thoughts he'd hidden away for so long that he no longer could.

Did she think him some monster? Did she think he didn't wonder about Aktaya's death every day, and hope? Did she truly think that was who he was? It wasn't. Each day he found himself spotting some young woman and thinking it was his missing daughter. Each day he found himself hearing a voice and turning in joy, only to lay his eyes on some other child. Someone else's daughter.

Not his. Never his.

And Oku simply couldn't see how much he simply wished to put the girl behind him. Because, if it didn't stop. If the pain didn't ease then he didn't know how much more he could take. And yet the woman simply could not see that all he wanted was one day to forget her. One day to forget her marvelous smile… Her eyes that lit up their home. Her…

Damn. Tears were trailing his cheeks.

"Oku-chan… Please! Can't you see how hard I'm trying to forget!? It hurts too much to remember her every day. To see her smile on any young girl's face and wonder _'what if_.' I can't take it!" He exclaimed as he approached her and knelt down, staring up into her eyes, lit only by the dim orange glow of streetlights far below.

"How could you ask me to do that…?" Oku almost hissed. "How could you ask me to—!"

The telephone rang inside, an audible electric thrum that made Soeji yearn for the days when Aktaya would yell 'I'll get it!' and rush to pick it up first, hoping for the call of a boyfriend or classmate.

"I… I'll be back, Sagegami." He murmured, trying to smile. He gave her cheek a soft caress, but she only met his eyes as he stood. So, not the time for pet names. Of course it wasn't. Still, more fights had been ended by the subtle injection of a memory of younger love than logic ever had. And she did smile… a little.

But suddenly, to Soeji's shock, she turned away, relenting and trying to wipe her eyes clear. "I… I'm sorry. Go. I'll… be in in a bit." She murmured, though the words held the slightest touch of bite. She didn't agree. Not completely. But she saw the right of it. Either that, or calling her by her old pet name, Ponytail, really had softened her.

He gave her a smile, and a chaste kiss on the cheek before turning inside, quickly opening the sliding glass door further to allow himself entry, and made a quick skip to catch the phone before the final ring?

"Hello?" He murmured, his depressive mood not completely filtered from his voice.

"_Soeji-san! This is Rota from Department B. We've spoken a few times about the Yoebra sale, you remember?" _Came the voice of a middle aged man, probably no older than Soeji himself.

Soeji cursed. The damn Yoebra sale. The stupid family insisted on seeing _every possible condo_ that Magmada Corp. had to offer, and examples of _each. In person! _If the family wasn't so loaded Soeji would have given up _long_ ago on trying to make that sale, but duty called.

"Yes Rota? You need help with something…? I'm a bit busy at the mom—!"

A quick three taps came at the door.

Soeji blinked. It was almost eleven O'clock. Who in the world was…?

"What _now?"_ He moaned, quite annoyed. "I'm sorry, Rota, would you hang on a second?" He asked, not bothering to put the phone down, walking around the drywall and stretching the cord along with him to the door.

He opened it, and was shocked to find a young girl. Perhaps no older than twenty or so, she appeared to have come on a bit of bad times in the past but was well out of them now. A large gash slid down the side of her cheek that had been well healed, and another down her bared arms. Beauty would have been her but for an honest to god _eyepatch,_ covering her left eye making him think 'pirate' upon seeing her. Seemingly to make up for the scarred skin though, she wore a tight fitting blue shirt with golden buttons down the front, and a skirt, that heightened her beauty.

A bit ugly in the face due to the obvious, she looked quite unusual. Short black hair, cut almost to resemble a boy save for the slightly girlish style imbedded in it, framed a cute face that may once have held a few spots of freckles beneath that scar to match those dotting the opposite side of her face. And of course, one couldn't help but notice the menacing looking sheath at her belt holding what appeared to be a very long dagger.

For some reason, Soeji felt a monumental tug of familiarity.

"Hello young lady. May… I help you?" He asked kindly.

Abruptly Soeji realized his state of dress. Little more than a robe; that was technically alright to be wearing, but still not exactly comfortable wear around strangers.

"You've… lost hair since I last saw you." The girl stated shyly, poking her fingers together with the embarrassed flush of a girl who'd done something she shouldn't have.

He quirked an eyebrow. "I've lost…? Have we met bef—!"

Soeji dropped the phone, scarcely hearing the smash of plastic on hard wood floor. Unconsciously his hand grabbed for a nearby wall to keep himself from falling over.

"It… can't be… It _can't be!" _He breathed, staring at the girl, studying her with an intensity to rival his wife's own moments before.

"I'm… home, Papa. I'm finally home." The girl said, a small smile decorating her beautiful face.

"Ak… _Aktaya!" _He rasped. "It… can't be!" He repeated once again, his utter shock torturing him. Was she real? This older girl… was not exactly how he'd pictured his daughter when she'd aged! Was this nothing but an illusion crafted of stress?

The girl walked up to him, and touched his cheek softly, a caress which shocked him to his core. She was real. She was… real!

Something clicked and he moved without thinking. His arms wrapped around her in a massive hug, and the girl had to struggle to make sure he wouldn't fall. His legs were shaking in fear. Was this a dream? It couldn't be real. Could it? Could this strange girl, so much older than his little one really be his daughter? Could she…?

The little freckles. The eyes. The deep black hair. The voice. This strange woman who spoke with his daughter's voice…

"My daughter!" He yelled louder. Loud enough to wake up neighbors but he didn't care. His face buried into her shoulders and her arms wrapped around his back. Dainty things, but assuredly his daughter's.

He wept. He wept, and cried until he could cry no more. He barely heard his wife's gasp, or even the shattering of something glass that she surely must have dropped, as she stumbled back in from the balcony. Even she couldn't pry him away from the embrace. He felt nothing but the slight movement of the girl's hands across his back, and soothing whispers that made him feel like he could fly.

What seemed hours he stood there hugging her, numbness creeping into his shoulders and fingers. He knew he was shaking but could do little to stop it as he finally pulled away. Without warning his wife nearly barraged him into the wall grappling the girl with all the fierceness he had and more.

"_My daughter_!" The woman moaned sweetly, echoing his own words from before. "You're alive… I knew! _I knew _you had to be out there somewhere… somewhere! Oh let me look at you!"

"Mama!" The girl giggled, blushing, as Soeji pulled himself up the wall. Standing straight, or as straight as he could while leaning his back against the wall to keep himself from falling over, he jerked at noticing there was another figure hovering in the shade of the dim late night hallway, slowly walking away. In the dim light he could just make out red hair on a short statured girl, and a small smile.

"Ra… Hey! Ranma!" Soeji's daughter shouted but getting away from her mother's hug was an effort in futility as she glanced back down the hallway.

Soeji didn't know who she was. But somehow he was sure, that that woman, slowly walking down the stairs and out of sight, was the reason his daughter had finally returned.

* * *

Ranma sighed. It was a good memory. The tears on Aktaya's cheeks. The smiles. The joy of reunited child and parents. How could she possibly take Aktaya away from the place she thought of as home, for… for… _this!?_ Still, she would have to deal with the girl sooner or later. And she would probably be royally pissed. But to get her away from here... away from the assassination attempts. The politics. The god damn hero worship.

Hopefully she would understand.

The door suddenly opened and Ranma jumped, splashing water all over herself. Angry that the stuff was _still_ cold, she turned to glare at the intruder, but balked when she found Ukyo Kuonji staring at her with a look of intensity that Ranma could scarcely place.

It wasn't anger, not exactly. It was simply… intense.

"Ukyo…?" She asked slowly, as Ukyo closed the large door behind her. "I… can I do something for you Ucchan?" She asked, as soon as she'd regained her wits. What the hell were her guards for anyway? She couldn't be bothered like this! She had to be in Hong Kong in a few hours!

"You were raped. Weren't you?" The girl stated bluntly, without preamble or greeting.

Ranma felt like it was a bash across the face. She would have taken the girl's old spatula to that biting question any day.

"You edge around it, and act like nothing happened to you. After all, your scars aren't too bad. You don't look too beat up. In the face at least." The girl walked forward, punctuating every word with sarcasm as she did so, approaching Ranma and looming over her in the same way almost everyone did.

"I…" Ranma tried to say, looking away.

The girl didn't give her time to answer. She grasped Ranma's elegant kimono worn only by the empress and yanked the thing open.

Ranma scrambled to tug the cloth away from Ukyo and cover her middle, her breasts thankfully hidden by a customized piece of material made to accommodate both genders, but it didn't help. The damage was already done.

Ukyo let loose a small gasp at the marks that crisscrossed Ranma's abdomen, and her wide eyed shock lasted long after Ranma managed to snatch back the clothing and cover herself. "I… yeah. It happened. What of it?" She hissed, turning away, her anger heated now that surprise had faded.

"The… the others guessed, too. Some of them. Nabiki and me… get along pretty well these days, and she guessed. You… kinda danced around it." The woman said as she slowly approached.

Ranma's cheeks flushed crimson when a soft hand grasped her waist and another spun her around, into a tight hug. "Ranchan… I'm sorry…" The girl burbled into her shoulder, her voice nothing like it was before. Weepy, she began to cry. "I'm so sorry I didn't find you. I didn't help you… _I… I'm sorry!" _

Ranma was… touched.

"H-Hey… Ukyo! It's okay! You thought I was dead. I know that… it's not a big deal anywa—!" Ranma protested, a bit vainly tugging at the girl to get her to loosen her tight hug, but she only held on tighter.

"It _is! _It is a big deal… I… should never have stopped looking for you, and now I…_" _The girl interrupted harshly, not giving Ranma the chance to placate her passion. "I… You seem so alone, even now. I… Ran-chan, I still love you. I-If you—!"

"_No!"_ Ranma barked. Then softened her voice. "I… No. I'm sorry Ucchan. I can't. I love… someone else."

The girl didn't jerk in surprise. The light in her eyes fell a little, but she did not protest, and not a twinge of anger erupted on her face. "Who…? When?" She asked softly, her voice let down, but still caring. "If you wouldn't mind telling me."

Ukyo _was_ a true friend. Ranma felt a bit of guilt at doubting that. In another life maybe… being married to her would be a wonderful life.

But… not this one.

Ranma turned her attention to the woman's questions, and found herself hesitating. Who... did she love? She wished she could answer that one. But "when" on the other hand… either way, _that_ she could tell. "It was…"

"…**about a year and eight months ago."**

* * *

The man who listened to the wind was tired. He was very, very tired of drinking stream water and living off berries. It had been a few days since he'd caught that rabbit and his stomach ached for meat. A few days before that he'd recalled meeting that strange boy with the yellow bandana. That had been one of the oddest encounters of his life. One minute he was happily talking to the boy, and the next he had apparently shucked his clothes and gone running off somewhere. The pile of clothes the boy had been wearing lay at his feet.

Very strange…

And he'd seemed perfectly sensible at first, if a bit lost. The man had almost taken directions from him, but the wind had been particularly insistent that he not do so, practically lifting him off the ground in its urgency to turn him away from the village the boy had directed him too, before his sudden disappearance.

But now was perhaps the most strange of them all.

"He.. uhm… excuse me. Hello sir!" He stated, his dialect a bit broken for this region, but the man understood and greeted him with a smile.

The man, probably twenty seven or so, wore a deerhide jerkin, or so it seemed. It made the man who heard the wind think very much of a barbarian. Or perhaps a woodsman of sorts.

"From where do you hail, Outlander?" He stated in a gruff, but slightly cheerful sort of way. Edging on rude but not quite. "Be you friend or foe?"

The man who heard the wind puzzled over that, though outwardly he answered "Friend" quite quickly. His long military background made this whole situation seem unusual. An old fashioned guard, barring what was clearly an entrance, brandishing a freaking _pike. _Where had he wandered into…?

A stone wall ran from where they stood in both directions up the mountains on either side. It must have taken a _master_ builder to craft something so difficult. Even the Great Wall did not look so spectacular, though it was much larger in every way. Still, this wall seemed to _follow_ the mountains, where the Great Wall scaled the valleys.

Amazing.

Men stood on the walls, though it had taken time for the man who heard the wind to notice them. _Many_ men. Enough to be considered a reasonably sized army on their own, and if the wall went half as far as he thought it did, a _massive_ army indeed.

It had taken hours for him to find a gate after all.

"I hail from the cities my friend. And it is good to see this place so hospitable." A bit of sarcasm never hurt, but the man seemed to brighten as if he took the compliment seriously. "I seek a bit of shelter, food, and water. I have coin as well, if you would allow me entry?"

The man was on the move almost instantly. "The musk realm is open to all men, my good sir. Your name, though?"

The man who listened to the wind smiled. Polite fellow. That was always good. Still, something about that comment pricked at him. The way he said, 'all men.' But still, it wasn't his problem. "I'm called Matio." He stated. "And thank you very much, sir." Matio gave a slight bow, and the man smiled back. Surprisingly polite for a soldier. Most Matio knew, including himself, were usually more grim.

As he walked through the small one man gateway into the large fortress, shocked at the number of wagons, carts, and men he saw decorating the barracks —it was surely a barracks— he turned back for a moment.

He was getting close, he knew. The wind would probably not help him much more. He'd have to go on his own now, and here was a good place to start.

"Tell me, my friend. I seek a woman." Matio stated. "She is very short, with bright red hair and…"

Matio trailed off as he realized the man's face had darkened into a storm of near fury. "Why… do you seek this woman?" He stated, his voice suddenly cold.

Matio gulped, and then, his eyes bulged in shock as a visible… aura… began to decorate the man with a hazy color of deep red.

"I… take it, you've met her?" Matio ventured worriedly.

"Why do you want to meet her?" He repeated, his tone utter ice, his eyes menacing.

"I… just… wanted to talk with her?" Matio tried. The man's fist blasted into his stomach, and breath left him. Bending over, hacking to catch his breath, he tried to understand what he'd done wrong.

"I haven't met her. She killed my brother." The man whispered into his ears.

Breath gone, Matio couldn't summon the words to apologize, not to mention cover his own shock as the man spun him around and tossed him over his shoulder like a sack of grain, and carried him through the gates, packs and all.

* * *

"There's something about that girl. A memory that I just can't recall…" Athyesa murmured worriedly. "But I could swear I've seen her somewhere before. Somewhere…"

Marith gave a curt nod at the legend's words. "I'm sure it will come to you Athyesa." She stated steadily.

Athyesa gave another sigh. Marith was such a nuisance at times. Inexplicably pessimistic at all times _except _when she was around. It was more than irritating that an Amazon elder still held even a tap of hero worship for another.

Ridiculous really.

But she supposed the woman was smart. She probably would remember what it was about that red-head that bothered her so. She remembered everything eventually and Marith knew it well. "The girl is clearly an expert martial artist. No doubts on that. The greatest in her age group I've ever seen, if Mai's evaluations of her can be believed. If only we could break those manacles we could have a major asset in this war."

"No more so than say the average elder. I don't think those shackles hold her back nearly as much as Mai believes." Marith stated curtly.

Athyesa smiled. It was her two hundred and twelfth year on this little world, and she'd seen many things in the long years of her life. A massive prison break from the Musk however was not something she'd ever witnessed. She had seen Amazon's overgrow the hindering power of the shackles before… but eight? She had trouble believing even Su Li Din, would be able to tear through that many even to summon a shred of power.

But this petite little red-head had shattered the collective force of _eight, _and regained her ki.

Oh yes. The girl made Athyesa a bit afraid. And being ashamed to admit that was something only the foolishness of youth would allow, and she was not young. The girl was stronger than any ten amazons. Perhaps even stronger than Tsukigezoku's legend, and certainly greater than herself.

"You underestimate the girl greatly. She has the skill. If she regains the power, she will be like a wave tearing through us, Musk and Amazon alike. I… fear her." Athyesa stated coolly.

Marith's eyes widened. "You…?"

"Who is the next strongest woman of her age? In all the Amazon villages. Who?" Athyesa stated quickly, changing the subject. Perhaps that had something to do with it. Somehow she was simply _sure_ she recognized Ruby.

"Um… perhaps Lho Xian, of Joketsuzoku. She won last year's tournament. Or… Eria. She is a scout from here, surprisingly enough. Cunning won her battles. The girl won the tournament two years ago, and came in third last year." Marith rang off, but it was enough. Something rang in the older woman's mind.

"Tournament. Yes… a tournament. Tell me who won the tournament three years ago Marith?" Athyesa asked with a whip crack in her voice.

"Ah… It was… Xian Pu. Yes. Oh… Chell's daughter! You know!" Chell was a survivor's story that had spread through the village like wildfire. Five years of captivity. Five years the Amazon's had thought her dead, but no. She had returned, free and proud. Few others had been imprisoned for that long. Few others were Amazons for that matter. If the stories of the survivors could be believed, and her many years having lived near the Musk, those evil men had a great fondness for breaking Amazons and turning them into their grunt's wives.

Athyesa had met Chell once, though. The girl had seemed meek as butter to her then. Hmph. Still, that had been the memory she'd needed to jar the reason for the Red-head nagging at her. She _had _seen Ruby before. And it had been at _that_ tournament.

"Hah hah! No. She did not. You were there, were you not Marith? Xian Pu was bested… by a red-haired girl, to whom she gave the Kiss of Death. Coincidence? I think not."

Marith's eyes widened once more. Goddess, but the woman could truly stretch those eyes open. "Sh-shall I have her apprehended?"

It took all of Athyesa's admirable patience not to slap the other woman. "I just told you I fear her, and you would threaten her? Fool girl! You saw what she did to the Musk… do you want her to break _our _prisoners free?"

"Why not kill her and be done with it?" Marith's voice returned simply.

Athyesa blinked. Perhaps the woman _was_ finally losing a bit of that hero worship. Ah well.

"She is an Amazon. Regardless of her past, she has done too much for us. A child's wounded pride having her prize eaten at a festival falls far short to even one rescued Amazon. Let alone hundreds. Add to that, she is pregnant. I will not kill a child, be he Musk scum or not." Athyesa stated pointedly.

"What should we do then?" Marith asked. Let it not be said that the woman wasn't flexible. Perhaps a bit too willing to change her plans. Maybe she hadn't lost the worship after all.

"We wait. We see whose side she fights on. If she shows signs of bitterness over old death rituals, then I will annul little Xian Pu's Kiss personally. She may not have Amazon blood, but so far she has the heart of one." Athyesa of the Waters stated grandly.

Marith merely nodded.

* * *

Ruby gave a large yawn as she woke. It was not a very peaceful waking either, considering she now lay flopped over the side of the bed they had given her, feet still on the home-crafted mattress. Wiping her eyes, she gave a rueful glare at the Amazon who had pushed her out of the bed in anger.

After several hours… no, make that _days_ of conversation, she'd been coaxed into staying in Kinagoda until Aktaya's baby was born. Though it was more like she'd been brow beaten into it. Ciao Dao, a no nonsense woman who was also one of the best fighters Ruby had ever met near her own age, had done much of that brow beating. Ruby would had to have been an idiot to not realize the glare the woman showed however, stemmed from more than just her solemn defeat yesterday.

Sure, Ciao Dao was _very _good. Ruby was just better.

Unfortunately, that was only in a mock battle, where ki didn't really count. Ruby had the Hiryuu Shoten Ha. It was the only special attack she knew that she could use without her ki. Other than that?

The truth was, Ruby had more skill than any Amazon below elder status. And more than a great many of them besides. But what the Amazon's lacked in skill, they more than made up for with the fact that they could _use_ the skill they had.

Ruby's ki was little more than a tiny stream compared to the rivers the amazons wielded. So… recklessly now. Ruby saw them use ki now as if it were infinite. Where she was forced to only enhance her body with ki in short sharp bursts. Embracing it always, but only using it when it was absolutely necessary.

And slowly, she was getting better.

But Ciao Dao's glare was caused by something else. Ciao Dao hated Ruby, because she wished to fight during her pregnancy. The woman had an irritating anger at her for that, and Ruby supposed she understood.

Ciao Dao had lost a child to her own pride in battle, and despite the glare, Ruby could see the fear that rested under those eyes. A surprisingly caring woman for one so rough.

"Come on Ruby! There isn't much time left."

Ruby shivered. Aktaya was having her baby, and her own stomach gave a massive kick at the thought.

"Stupid kid! Cut it out!" She whispered as Ciao Dao left the room. She quickly dressed and hurried out to the same place she'd gone every morning noon and evening since coming here. It was about four in the morning if she had any guess, based simply on how tired she was, but that didn't matter. Nothing did, except being there for Aktaya.

'_God I hope she's here for me… when I… _' She shuddered. She didn't want to have a baby. More importantly, she wasn't _ready_ to have a baby. Oh, sure, most women thought that, but she actually _wasn't._ Aktaya's contractions had started early the previous morning. Ruby didn't have a _clue_ what that meant! All she knew was that one minute the girl was fine, though admittedly having some difficulty with her quite rounded stomach, when suddenly the girl jerked as if she'd been kicked!

Ruby had, of course, kept her from falling, and the girl seemed alright for a moment or two after that. Right up until those four words left her mouth. "I think it's time."

The words were like a gong sounding a countdown to Ruby's own labor, and each scream the girl let out since had punctuated another moment on the ephemeral countdown.

It had been some six hours ago that Chell had relieved her of the duty of sitting beside the girl and holding her hand. Six hours because she'd spent the twenty before right beside Aktaya and was probably as tired as the girl herself was.

She told herself that right up until she entered the cabin which only barely managed to muffle the sounds of childbirth from within. "Taya…" She murmured. "I'm here."

The pain the girl's entire body seemed to be coated with seemed to easy a bit at the sight of her. A hard pregnancy. Her frail body and the tortures of so short a time ago were the cause of this, and Ruby couldn't help but feel guilty. Still she hid her guilt and strode to the girl, grasping her hand just as firmly as Chell held the other.

Two other women resided within the room. Jai Alai, who just so happened to have been midwife to almost twenty women, had taken the role gracefully, and Teriga, an Amazon elder and master healer.

The two women could have been flies for all the attention Ruby gave them. Her eyes, her heart, focused entirely on Aktaya. The girl was a sheet of sweat and tears, and the bed on which she lay was soaked to the wooden frame. Her hair plastered to the pillow and her face was a mix of agony and fear, softened only lightly with the joy of Ruby's arrival.

"Ru-Ruby… I'm glad you're here." She murmured.

Ruby smiled and held down the grimace as the girl's hand gripped down with more strength than a rabid panda could.

"I'll always be here for you." Ruby gave a wide grin that masked her own horror as she looked down. Dear god did that…? No. Focus. "Just… make sure you're there for me okay? Now come on… let's get this over with."

The girl nodded, and broke her hold on Chell's hand for a moment to wipe the intermingled tears and sweat from her eyes. She winced once more as another contraction wracked her body, and Ruby winced with her, as she loosed another yelp.

"Alright… Push…"

Two more hours Ruby stayed there. Two hours of piling doubts, and questions and ever growing fear for both Aktaya's safety and for her own body in the short four or five months it would be till she faced this same nightmare.

'_Is this worth it?' _

'_Can I handle this?' _

'_I'm a guy, dammit, and this is…!' _

"It's a boy." Ruby heard Jai Alai say, but she didn't really comprehend it. A cord, something quite nasty looking that Ruby had never heard of before was snipped before her eyes, and for a moment Ruby was shocked. But the baby was crying. Bawling lightly as he was handed to his mother, and it seemed okay, so Ruby decided that was normal.

'_Such tiny hands…' _Ruby murmured in her mind reverently as she stared at the crying thing. It looked… messy, to be honest. But wrapped in clothes, and free of Aktaya's screams Ruby couldn't help but feel a slight bit of awe. "It's… alive. A new little person. I…"

She hadn't realized she'd voiced her words aloud, or that she was poking the little thing with her fingers until Aktaya caught her eyes. The same reverence lay in her tone. "I… I know…"

Chell seemed to fade a bit, backing away. Had Ruby been able to take her eyes from Aktaya or the little baby with hands smaller than her eyes, she would have seen a knowing smile begin to cross the woman's face.

"Are you…? Are you okay… Taya?" Ruby asked gently, her worry for herself as un-evident as she could make it as she stared at the child in horror, trepidation, and… anticipation?

"I… am wonderful." The girl said with a sigh, as her eyes regarded her child. _Her child. _"I… am tired, but… I… I'm a mom, Ruby! I…" The girl trailed off, shocked with her own words, still staring down lovingly at the child in her arms. "I'm a…"

"I know." Ruby replied softly. "What… what are you going to name him?"

Aktaya hugged the child to herself tightly with a smile. "I'm going to call him Tir. Tir Sovi." She murmured quietly. "D-do you like it? It's a little simple but... just... do you like it?" She asked mildly, without looking away.

Ruby's own eyes widened. She'd never known Aktaya's family name before, but she quickly addressed the question. "Of course… but… was it, worth it? Are you sure you're all—?"

"It was worth every moment." The girl's words took on an exalted tone, without hesitating even a moment as she brushed the boy's tiny cheek lightly with the back of her fingers. "Every… single… moment."

Tears leaked down Aktaya's cheeks, and a smile that could brighten hell brimmed on her face.

* * *

Herb sighed as he overlooked the battlefield from his position midway up the side of a particularly short mountain. His visibility was stinted heavily by the trees, but hovering out atop them would be folly beyond reason.

Su Li Din was out there. The legendary Amazon who had fought toe to toe with his father and managed to both live, _and_ injure him. The very thought made him shiver. She was almost the only factor keeping the Musk from overwhelming the survivors of Tsukigezoku's massacre, and Herb, despite being possibly the second strongest fighter in the field, did not wish to meet her.

If he did, then he would do what he must. But it was foolish to enter a battle you couldn't win. Musk were taught to know their limits. If an opponent was stronger or better and death would be sure, retreat, find reinforcements, learn, and strike. Su Li Din was a legend even in the realms of the Musk where females rising above even anonymity was considered treason, and he would be a fool to fight the woman without at the very least the support of his eldest brother.

That prompted another sigh, with a dismal look towards the clouds roiling overhead. It was going to rain soon, and then he would have to deal with his own soldiers moving to attack him. _Again_.

He couldn't really blame them. Women were the enemy in this war, and it was women that they attacked. Most Musk knew of Herb the Dragon Prince's new curse, but few had actually seen their prince change form before them, and Herb could tell it made them uneasy. Truth be told, it made _him_ uneasy to be commanding them.

But this was his punishment.

"_You will join the war as a general on the front lines under your brother. Now go. Leave my sight until you have remembered the ways of your ancestors." _Tsingtao had said.

He growled as he looked down below into the valley where the sounds of battle echoed everywhere. Growled at the uselessness of it all. This was his father's grand ploy? Take down the Amazons. Once they were destroyed the rest of China would fall easily.

A simple plan, and perhaps even true if done properly, and all in all they'd done quite well. Barely a pinch of their army had already destroyed the Amazon's fighter outpost.

Kinagoda's reinforcements were weak little mice by comparison. Kinagoda was a farming village. All three of the amazon villages had fighters and scouts and rangers and all sorts of people but the two outer villages featured fighting for Tsukigezoku and farming for Kinagoda.

And considering the massive army still waiting in the valley and the barracks that surrounded it, twenty eight in total, everything was going well. It had only taken one of those barracks to get them to where they were now, but it would probably talk half of them to route Joketsuzoku itself. Double the size of Tsukigezoku and Kinagoda combined, Joketsuzoku was the centre of Amazon power. Excepting Su Li Din for some strange reason, all of the greatest amazon elders resided there. Over five hundred elders each more than capable of mass destruction. Herb would be hard pressed to battle any three at the same time, he knew, but he was no where near alone. His soldiers were no push overs, and the heads of each clan could probably match the Amazon elders to a standstill in one on one combat.

On average anyways.

He withdrew a small telescope from one of seven pack horses, and lengthened the thing in order to look down into the valley. Most of his view was corrupted by trees and brush but he did manage to spot a few flashes of light indicating intense battle. Kinagoda's troops had come acting as rescuers, breaking a hole through the line of Musk laying siege to the city, though the place could hardly be called a city now. Rubble and broken buildings, toppled monuments and shattered huts were almost all that remained of Tsukigezoku, but it's people had managed to escape.

His goal was to harray them all the way back to Kinagoda. And kill as many as possible.

It sickened him to his core. This battle was _wrong. _This entire _war_ was wrong! But... what could he do? Any twenty musk soldiers could probably defeat and capture him if he defected to the side of the Amazons; his brother could probably do it on his own.

"Your orders, sir?" Came the voice of Petuo, a bloodthirsty man if Herb had ever seen one, but quite mild by comparison to the rest of his clan. The Hounds were always bloodthirsty.

Herb sighed yet again as he collapsed his small looking glass in on itself and pocketed it back into his own pocket and turned to face the man. Digging through his pocket he pulled out a slightly crumpled scroll and handed it to the man. "Send that to the eagles. Tell them to deliver it to the king with all haste, once the rains change our forms. As for the battle... put away your blades Hound. We are done here."

The man actually had the audacity to _snort._ "Amazons still live. You would just let them escape back into theirrrrrr-- Ragh!?"

Rain began to fall lightly and Herb felt the shift. The man shifted into the form of a midnight grey dog whose head reached almost to Herb's ample chest, and her eyes narrowed. "Do you question me...? Perhaps you would like to challenge me for command...?" Herb's voice was calm and controlled, but the dog visibly backed away, letting loose a weak wimper. _"Go, dog." _She spat.

The dog went.

Not a good day. Not a good day at all.

Suddenly the dog lurched and fell to the ground, along with Herb herself, all seven pack horses and the fourty or so animals and men behind him, instantly falling to their feet as the ground shook. Herb's eyes whipped back towards the valley below and she was on her feet as quick as lightning. Pulling out the eyeglass again she stared in horror as fire erupted in a massive dome of red fiery ki and burning tinder, hidden only by the endless miles of trees between.

"Brother... good luck." She murmured.

* * *

Mace jerked himself upright with the speed of a ki blast, dodging as the ground beneath him erupted in flames. The soaked ground, covered in water from the ever increasing rains was no bar to the fiery hells that seemed to burst forth around him wherever he stood. His men were dead or fleeing, and he had no choice but to fight to spare them the minutes they would need.

And one woman stood before him.

Not even a fourth his height, the woman Su Li Din wore a banded red fighters gown, torn from hours of battle. The wrinkles that covered every inch of her skin did nothing to alleviate the fire burning in her eyes, redder than any that scorched the ground around them. In her hands lay a small flute, barely a hand's length but that weapon was the most feared one that the Musk knew.

Din's Fire Whistle.

The woman stood bathed in a seething red glow of ki and power that made his teeth want to chatter. In the paces around where she stood, bubbles grew out of the thick mudd and popped. Steam floated off of everything around her, and even as far as he stood from her, bits of brush that had been soaked only moments before burst into flames. But he held to his stoicism. The eldest son of the King should not be one to show fear. Even if death greeted him.

White hair, pulled back by a tiara of three jewels kept the woman's eyes free to glare their hatred into him, and he bore it with dignity. They had fallen into his trap, but she had still come out better than he. Most of the Amazon's had survived his ambush. Most of his men lay about him on the battlefield, their bodies bursting into flames with no more difficulty than the brushes.

"You are brave, Mace, Eldest Prince of the Musk Dynasty. It will be that bravery that kills you. You know whom you face... and still you stand? Even the king is not fool enough to face me head on." The old voice spoke. Smoke seethed from those terrifying lips black as the night itself.

"I am not foolish enough to think I can kill you, old woman." He stated, keeping his calm. Inside he wished to run. His muscles ached for it and his mind told him his was mad for standing there, flames licking his boots. But his men were still retreating. Those who lived still trying to get the injured away. He would be no man if he let them die while he fled. "But I will make your flames dance with fury at the effort it will take to burn me from this world Su Li Din."

A grin crossed that face, fire burning through her deep eyes. "We will see..." She murmured.

And then she was gone.

Mace lifted his right arm to block on instinct alone and gasped as he felt his arm jerk, her kick powering through his massive muscles and still managing to send him sprawling. Flipping in the air, he righted himself and slid along the forest floor dodging the next searing attack. His arm felt like it was on fire, but he pushed the pain away. He couldn't stop the grunt though as everywhere the woman had touched felt like it had been burned with hot coals.

"Where are you woman!" He growled. "There is no honor in battling shadows."

Gathering his ki within him, he crouched low when no answer came. This battle would be his greatest ever. Whether he lived or died made no difference. _"Tenrai Seiiku."_

His massive stores of ki began to seep off him, a phosphoresent green glow exuding to match the red glow of the hidden woman. Sighing, he closed his eyes and felt the woods around him. His father had often scorned this technique. Ki was meant to be absorbed and taken from nature. Mace thought differently. His green ki, powered by his emotion, seeped into the plants all around, and the trees began to stir. Bushes shivered. Mace felt them, their rage burning with enough energy to match the legendary amazon's fires. Their confusion. Why? Why was this woman destroying their forest? Why?

And he gave them power. Power to reach out. Power to strike. Power to snuff the woman out of existance.

A great boom sounded as a tree slammed itself down, the great trunk bending to slam onto the spot where it had located the hiding Amazon. And suddenly all around bushes began attacking, launching thorns into the brush where the small woman danced and battled with thousands upon thousands of twigs and branches. Moving like a lighting, the woman dodged the massive impacts of angry tree trunks slamming down into the ground, rising, and slamming again.

"Nature grows angry with you, woman." Mace grinned opening his eyes to watch. "What will you do when the very forest you live in has turned on you?"

White searing pain suddenly blazed up his leg and he jerked himself to the left, just as a pillar of flame suddenly burst from the spot he'd stood in. Another moment and he dodged another, avoiding the burst of steam just before the pillar rose. Another, and another, and in moments the entire forest floor was erupting in spraying mountains of magma and flames.

Finally it seemed to stop, and Mace turned his eyes to where his trees had been assaulting the woman. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised not to find her there, but he was. _'Where is she... God damn!' _He cursed mentally, his eyes scanning the dark woods beneath now burning tree tops above him, trying desperately to ignore the screams of nature around him. Everything living screamed in pain as it burned. Everything... burning... It sickened Mace.

"You fool boy..." The amazon's voice rang from everywhere again. "What will you do when hell itself swallows this forest? You need it more than I..."

Mace's eyes narrowed. He would defeat this damnable woman! Somehow...

"You would destroy your own home?" He asked the dark air around him, choking as fumes began to fill his lungs. "Heartless Amazons..."

A barked laugh was his only response, but he ignored her. Life was his power. Wherever there was life, he was the strongest. And he delved, his green ki pushing back the smoke and flames, sinking into the ground.

Flames began to dwindle as water burbled up from the rivers that always swelled deep beneath the ground, rising, ki empowered to drench the fires bursting from Su Li Din. But he was no fool. Only a temporary fix. Below all that water, lay fire. Her power stretched deeper than he had to try.

Stretching his ki, the plants... the forest itself began to grow. Trees began to form and from the remains of burned and deadening grass, new brush began to form amidst the smoke. As the flaming dead trees fell, new grew to replace them, each attacking the woman. Rose and blackberry bushes bloomed and made bullets crafted of thorns blasting out at the woman.

Mace knew his senses were as strong as they could be. But when he wasn't good enough. When he couldn't find his enemies, the forest could. And again the Amazon was exposed to him by the falling of massive green trees and the sounds of battle.

Mace dashed at her. He couldn't let the wood battle for him and while she was busy fighting the plants, bushes growing up around the trap her feet, and massive fly traps seeking to engulf her entirely, he swung his fist.

The woman held up the flute in her left hand not even looking at him to block his fist. He wanted to scream as his hand hammered into what might as well have been his father. His father was the only thing his fists couldn't break. Now there were two things. But he had no time to worry about the pain. His leg still burned. His hand and arm burned. But he was forced to dodge a swipe of airpressure with enough strength to slice him in two.

A scream echoed in his ears as he realized the swipe he had dodged had severed a tree at the trunk.

"You evil woman..." He hissed. "You..."

Shock filled him as he looked into her eyes. She was... tired! She was...

"You are good boy. I almost _felt_ that attack. And my Amazons have cleared the area... so..." A smile, an almost genuine looking smile graced her elderly face. _"Hellfire Chasm."_

The woman glowed a deep red and the vines and twigs and trees seemed to shriek as they all flinched away from her in horror. But that wasn't what was truly terrifying.

In the distance, to the east... the west. The north and south. More red. Always red... burning. And the echoes of screaming trees. Of animals burning, Mace watched as a dome of magma rose up around him, blotting the sky in a roiling barrier of red magma. As that great dome began to contract, drips of magma dripped off the bottom, scalding everything within.

"Time to die boy..."

Mace looked to her, standing there, smiling as her body began to fade from existance, the woman had the gall to wave at him. He didn't understand how, but he knew she would not be dying. Not today.

But as he turned to face the dome, shrinking down and burning his newly grown trees to cinders, he knew something else. He wouldn't be dying today either.

His green ki glowed.

* * *

Aktaya still felt like she was dreaming, even after hours of holding her child. Even after hours of introducing the new Amazon to the friends she'd made while here in this place. This village that she was starting to think of as home even after only the short month she'd been here. Even after a day holding him in her arms it still felt unreal to her.

She loved to watch the children play. She loved to watch Ruby train, and Chell too. The woman had broken through her block and summoned forth her ki for the first time in five years only a week ago now. Now that she knew she could, now that she knew it was possible, her power had bloomed, and Aktaya was proud of the older woman.

Bits of jealousy sprang up there as well. She hadn't been allowed to train. Allowed to do anything. But she wanted to. Oh gods how she wanted to become strong! So strong that no one could ever hurt her, or especially her new child, ever again. Not ever.

But Ruby… Ruby had disappeared, not long after the new babe was born. Aktaya hadn't been able to follow at the time. Hell she'd hardly been able to _care_ at the time, but now she was beginning to worry. Where in the hell could that girl be?

Aktaya had been cautioned against running or any strenuous physical activity by both Teriga and Jai Alai, but she did it anyway, if only a slight jog. Got it felt so _good_ to be able to move again! She felt so thin! And after the last night's rest she felt ready to take on the world. Well. She still ached all over like she never had before. But it felt so much better than before the pregnancy.

Chell held her child now, and would for another hour or two. Aktaya didn't think she could _make_ herself stay away from the babe longer than that, but… something was wrong with Ruby, and she had to find out what.

Wandering the village always gave Aktaya a strange sense of peace and that was true even more so now. The season was slowly fading to autumn, and the cools were slowly starting to set in across the land. Leaves, many on the trees still brimming green with life, decorated the wooded ground in a mirage of browns and yellows and reds and children laughed and played in them. Many trained as well, as was customary among amazon children.

Much less strict on their children than the Musk, and thankfully keeping their children in their homes until they were graced with their own wife or husband, instead of sending them to a barracks at the age of five once they'd learned to speak. But their soldiers seemed to be every bit as hard.

One building Aktaya feared. The prisoners building. And despite the beauty of this place, Aktaya didn't know if she could take seeing Musk prisoners held in the same state she had been. So she didn't wander near, deluding herself into believing the Amazon's were good and noble, and did not stoop to captivity and slavery and torture.

She hoped they didn't. The men in the village seemed happy at least.

So had Musk women.

Aktaya shook herself when she realized how grim her thoughts had become, and returned to seeking Ruby.

It was almost another hour before Aktaya found the girl, hovering outside the _bathhouse_ of all places. Not bathing. Simply… staring at the place, watching the steam leak out behind the high walls. She wasn't looking for people though. If anything that long gaze was held fixedly on the _steam._ How strange…

"Ruby?" She asked curiously as she approached.

"What? Oh…" The girl blinked, a bit startled by her. That alone was enough to shock Aktaya. Ruby was _never_ startled. "Hi… Aktaya."

"I haven't seen you since yesterday. Are… what's on your mind?"

The girl's eyes trailed back to the bathhouse and an almost _longing _look brimmed on that beautiful face she wore. Odd that. She looked quite clean.

"Nothing." She answered curtly. "I just—! No. Nothing."

"Ruby, I think I know you well enough to know that something's bothering you. Where have you been?" She asked, taking a curious glance at the bathhouse. Taking a shot at humor she poked. "Peeking on boys?"

Indignance flashed across the woman's face. "No." She stated harshly, and Aktaya believed her.

"Well then… what…?" She asked.

Ruby debated her answer for some time before she looked up from staring at the bathhouse and her response was a deep sigh. "I…" A blush crept across her face and she twitched left and right looking for onlookers. "I…"

"Yeah…?" Aktaya questioned. The girl was infuriating!

"Look, it's nothing. I can handle it on my own so don't worry about it okay?" The girl backed away from the topic, whatever it was, with alarming alacrity, which only intrigued Aktaya further. What was the girl hiding?

"_Riiight." _She drawled sarcastically. "Because the great Ruby is above the problems of us normal people… Hell, she won't even deign to use her actual _name_ anymore."

It was a harsh barb, but Aktaya had never been less than an outspoken girl. Still it was a touchy subject too, and Aktaya held her breath in wait for the snap Ruby would send. It had been quickly learned by most Amazons that the red-haired fighter was _very_ touchy about her name.

"I am not! Just… leave me alone and go mommy your kid or something!" Ruby didn't quite screech.

"Maybe I will! God I didn't know you were such a prick when not behind bars!" The girl exclaimed, turning her back to the redhead and walking briskly away. Before getting too far though, she turned and looked back over her shoulder. "I just want to help, Ruby."

A few more steps she took, when a faint whisper reached her ears. _"Wait." _

She turned. The girl stood there, eyes downcast, hair shading her features. It didn't hide the small trail of tears that leaked down her eyes though.

"I'm… afraid, alright!?" She rasped, barely audible, her head ducking and her cheeks flushed so red it matched her neon hair.

Aktaya _stared_ in abject disbelief. "You…? _Afraid!? _Of _what!?" _Aktaya tried to reason out the logic behind that. Tried to understand even the concept of Ruby mixed with an adjective such fear. It made no sense. It was like saying trees grew down. Like saying Musk weren't sexist. Like… she could think of no comparison that fit.

"Sh-shut up!" Ruby exclaimed, her face heated. "You knew what you were getting into! I wasn't meant for this! I… I can't handle—" She let a hand touch her stomach, and despite her anger the touch was feather light. "—_This_!"

Bloodshot eyes matched a face brimming with the need to run and hide away from everything. Ruby. The one who could face down the Musk King himself. Killing more foes and captors that perhaps any other slave in history. And it was a baby that scared her to death?

In hindsight Aktaya decided it shouldn't have been all that surprised and Ruby quickly put words to her own thoughts.

"F-fighting is all I know. It's all I've ever wanted. I can't… do this…!" The redhead murmured.

The eyes of passers and onlookers, luckily, did not hold their attention to Ruby any longer than it took to realize that this moment was one that she wished to be private. Amazons were a respectful people. The shame of another was theirs and theirs alone. The eyes of others did not help, and Amazons strength was measured by its weakest link. Respect the person, and let them bear their burdens, and ease them if you could . Never add to them.

That was the Amazon way.

Aktaya didn't know how she'd come to wrap her arm around Ruby's smaller form, but she did. "I don't have a clue, Ruby. I'm so scared I'm going to accidentally drop him that my teeth are falling out from all the chattering! But… at least… we'll be there for each other? Right?" Aktaya let her arms relax a little and slid one hand down to rest on Ruby's still unbelievably slim abdomen. "When he comes, they can grow up together. They can be brothers… if you like?"

"I'd… like that a lot, Taya." The redhead shuddered. "I… just hope I don't kill the little bastard on accident."

Aktaya giggled. "Somehow I think you'll be the most careful of all."

If only she could feel the irony in Ruby's grim laughter, but only the redhead's waning tears left any impression.

**End Chapter Eight**

**Author's Notes: **A bit more character development. A bit of action, and a new baby! That should have been enough to sate you guy's interest in what's going on. At least a little. Bit of a preview. In our next chapter we have a siege, somethin' big is gonna happen to Herb, and most importantly... kitty cats! Hope ya all enjoyed!

Guess I lied about Rapture and Last Day. They're still very alive. Just on back burner because Her War is such a prominent fic. I swear the damn thing demands to be written. So did Su Li Din have enough build up? Hopefully some of you will catch the reference to zelda. Not all that difficult of one. Actually it kinda came out of no where, but I knew I wanted her to be an utter badass, just to put Ranma through the ringers.

**Hope you'll all leave a review!  
**

**Till Next!**

**MB  
**


	10. What Makes Men Tremble

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too! And Ryo's.

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Nine  
What Makes Men Tremble**

_A few weeks of rest we had. Maybe a month was all before the war was upon us. But that was all Ruby needed. She fought as well as any Amazon at first, though truly She was little better than average. Her manacles shielded too much of Her power. I, on the other hand, grew strong, and quickly. _

_None of that mattered though. All too soon we had lost all ground outside the walls of our city. The Musk army at our gates, and our only chance at escape, the tunnels, burned. Joketsuzoku had sent no reinforcements save for those long dead. _

_We were going to die. It was the end, and we were all going to die. _

_And Ruby, in Her desperation stared into the eyes of a cat. I thought She'd gone insane._

_Perhaps She had.

* * *

_

* * *

In a small clearing deep within the heart of a dim forest somewhere far north of Kinagoda, and west of the ruined city of Tsukigezoku, a small fire crackled warmly, casting a flickering light across the trees and shrubs surrounding it.

The canopy of trees, and the small amount of smoke choking them, blocked out all but the brightest of stars, but the crackling flames gave little shelter to the biting chill of late autumn. Brown leaves littered the ground everywhere, and many of them had been used as fuel to start the small campfire.

The pleasant stench of meat cooking slowly on a spit built over the fire seeped into the dark figure hovering near. Grinning to himself, the lumbering man rubbed his hands together, both in anticipation for his meal, and comfort from his long day.

He'd been walking for almost a week now, and for the past two days, had been eating surprisingly well. He was deep in Amazon territory, so of course most of the big game was being hunted by them. But he'd gotten lucky, a few days ago, and it was simple to haul his catch along with him.

Grasping the sticks he rotated the makeshift spit watching as the meat cooked in hungry anticipation.

"Ahh, this is going to be delicious!" He exclaimed. "Tell me, would you like a bite?"

His laughter, loud and melodious, rang through the forest and echoed in Esthre's ears. She shuddered as the smell reached her nose. It smelled… _wonderful. _Even so, she glared a hateful defiance at the man, and would have screamed her rage at him, had her mouth not been gagged.

Her traitorous stomach gave a massive rumble, and guilt shuddered through her.

The man lifted the stick suddenly, and brought the spit to his lips, taking a massive bite and grinning as he chewed.

"Mmm… good as I thought it would be." He murmured deliriously.

Esthre shrieked through her gag, and strained at her bonds, but they were firm. The shackle buckled around her wrist somehow sapped her strength. Her shame felt like a mountain on her shoulders, but the ropes would not break. No matter how she struggled.

"Aw, come now." The man said kindly. "You haven't eaten in three days you know. You _must_ be hungry." He stated as he strode towards her.

Her eyes rose to meet those of the massive man, and she quivered, but not in fear. She stared longingly at the piece of meat sizzling in his hand. Her mouth watered and she desperately tried to shove the scent out of her nose. But she could not turn away.

The man slipped a finger between the rope that ran through her lips and tugged it free, leaving her mouth handing open, as he shoved the slab of food beneath her nose. She moaned at the wonderful smell.

"Go on girl… eat, eh?" He said, proffering the food, a warm smile on his face.

She tried… so hard she tried… but it smelled so _good!_

Tears trailed down her cheeks as she gnawed into the meat viciously. Tears of shame. Of weakness. Only three days captive to this monster and she… she…

Gods but it tasted _wonderful!_

"Ah… good, girl. You like that, don't you? Tasty?" He asked warmly, as he pulled the meat away from her and took a bite himself.

"Why won't you kill me…?" She begged. She _still_ wanted the meat! How could she…?

"Kill you…?" The man seemed confused. "Why, I'm not _that_ hungry. Your friend," He paused. "No, sister, I think you called her? She'll last at _least_ another day."

"P-Please!" She begged. "Don't make me…"

"_Make you?" _He exclaimed with mox offense. "Hah! I only offered, girl. It was you who took the bite. Want another?" He held up the meat again, dangling it before her nose, tantalizing her.

Esthre could only muster the strength to hesitate a moment before she sunk her teeth into the roasted food, horror mingling with the warm feeling sinking into her empty belly, and when her mouth was empty she could only stare in hatred. "Bastard…" She seethed, her eyes glistening.

But that didn't stop her from taking another bite, squinching her eyes together in shame as she swallowed, voracious hunger and the will to live overcoming everything else.

Borage grinned. He'd forgotten how much he loved torture. And this was the most fun he'd had in ages. It was so good to torture someone who actually _broke._ Not to mention terribly tasty. But this all had a different motive beyond simple pleasure. This was training.

He was master of torture, and despite his lost manhood, he'd regained his sanity. Until he had recalled the blessed powers of the pools he'd thought all was lost. He was not a man. How could he even be a part of the Musk if he wasn't a man? But Jusenkyo… it could restore him. It _would_ restore him! He would regain his father's favor.

He would recapture Ruby, and on that day he would show no mercy.

Until then…?

Well…

'_Practice makes perfect.'

* * *

_

* * *

"T-Take them! Take them down! Cut down the Amazon scum!" Ruby heard the deep scream from somewhere off in the woods to the south, but she ignored it. It was nothing more than one of hundreds, though this one rose above the din of the rest.

Her eyes flashed silently to the left, but she saw nothing but the shadows cast by the dim fringes of sunset far beyond the edge of the forest. Heat seemed to meld together with her skin. The heat of fires in the distance. Bodies and battle raged all around her, and she couldn't see one through the dense thicket of trees shrouding the true heat of this war from all view in darkness.

Making sure that no one was in the near vicinity, she unwrapped a length of gauze. "Come on. You're gonna be okay." She murmured, her eyes locked on those of the woman before her. Leaning against a tree, long red hair, similar to Ruby's own, the woman seemed at the very peaks of pain.

Still, the woman had been a warrior longer than Ranma had been a simple martial artist. She was _good_ at holding the pain, and keeping it hidden. Blood trailing down her leg, Ranma wasn't so sure she would have done so well, but this wasn't the worst wound Ruby had seen in the last week she'd been actively participating in the battle.

Well, perhaps she would. She'd proven herself under Borage's hand.

"You… who are you? A Joketsuzoku girl? Or a Tsuki survivor? I've n-never seen you before." The woman only grunted once through Ruby's quick poking and wrapping of the wound, and Ruby couldn't help but feel impressed. This woman was as strong as she was beautiful.

"I'm… not from around here. They call me Ruby." Ruby replied quickly.

Running a hand through her own hair, cut short for the first time in her living memory, Ruby set to work wrapping the gauze more firmly around the woman's blood soaked leg. The dead musk, a tiger, lay a few feet away, its upper right fang missing from where it had been lodged in the other red-haired woman's leg.

"Ruby…" The wounded girl murmured reverently. "You…? But… you are—!"

"A medic, I know." Ruby interrupted dismally. "I… I'm just not strong enough to be any use…" She admitted, showcasing her arm and the manacles on it. It had _burned_ her to admit that cold fact the first time, when they'd finally allowed her in battle and her hands seemed to do little more than bruise her enemies. That had been days ago. Now, the wound to her pride had scabbed and was slowly healing.

The number of musk she'd killed _had_ increased during her time in these godforsaken woods. She was not completely without power, though medics were looked down upon in Amazon society. Still, at least she could do… _something._

An explosion burst in the distance, the ground trembling under power that Ruby couldn't see from here. She could feel it though, and her hands began to move all the faster. As she continued her medication, the other red-haired woman had been taking a closer look at her and, having counted the manacles binding Ruby's ki away, her jaw now sagged open in stark wonder, forgetting even the pain her leg was in.

It was not the first time Ruby had seen such a display. Amazons were familiar with the manacles, and the power they held to bar a person from the use of their ki, but after some prying, the Amazons had admitted that they had long since forgotten how to make the wretched devices. Cheguo, the Liontamer, as her title went, had claimed the Amazons had made them first, but that knowledge was long since lost, stolen in the past before written record was kept.

To the Amazon's knowledge there was no way to remove the manacles, save for having them removed by the one who put them on.

Great load of help that was. Ruby bet a chainsaw could get the damn things off!

The woman burst without warning. "But… how could you single-handedly rescue the entire captured forces of the eighteenth brigade if you had no ki? How could you have fought eye to eye with the Prince of the Musk!? How could you have possibly saved no less than six fellows in distress from right under the phoenix queen's nose!? You… you can't be _Ruby!"_

Well. That made Ruby a bit annoyed. Sure, being a legend was fun and all, but what use was it when no one believed it was you!? And wait… _'fellows in distress?' _That didn't even _ring_ right! God but these people were backwards!

"Thanks for the faith." She jabbed wryly, as she tied a particularly tight knot over the girl's bleeding thigh and drew a wince that she admitted she took a small bit of delight from. She was Ruby. She could do anything.

Well, except fight worth a damn…

She was content however, as being a medic, she'd found, was unbelievably rewarding. Each fighter she dragged back from the depths of the battlefield, narrowly escaping the advances of the seemingly endless army of Musk, gained her the respect of the Amazons around her, and the warm glow of realizing that she'd saved a life. That this person she had brought back, would have died or worse, if not for her.

That felt _big_ when her trade had been killing for so long.

"No more fighting for you today." She stated after finishing the bandaging in silence. She was honestly starting to feel a bit awkward under the older woman's stare but even that was something she was growing used to.

"C'mon." She stated, slipping herself under the arm of the other red-haired woman and hoisting her to her feet. It was a half a mile to Kinagoda, a trip she'd made countless times over the past two days. "I'd carry you if I could, but I can't hold out for that long." Hours and countless trips to and from the battle field brought weariness to Ranma's voice. Her arms burned with the fire of strain. Hundreds of woman, dead and dying, carried or limped or dragged back to the dying village left her limbs screaming in a blaze that even the heat of the battlefield couldn't match. "You're gonna have to walk a bit on that leg. Tell me, what's your name?"

"Oh Goddess! H-help! Hel—!" The scream was roughly silenced by something in the distance, and Ruby felt fear grow in the pits of her stomach.

"We have to get out of he—!" Another explosion echoed right behind her, and Ruby turned and stared in horror as a tree, now blazing with flames that had not been there moments before came tumbling right towards her.

Pushing forth the massive effort required to use even that small ounce, perhaps a liter now, of ki, she instantly cradled the older woman in her arms and leapt, just barely dodging the massive trunk that would have flattened them both into crushed bone and death, but she did not escape without injury.

Thousands upon thousands of twigs raked through her back as the tree scrapped her retreating body, and she screamed as the pain jolted through her. Shrugging it off, she made another massive leap before her ki gave out. None left, she couldn't hold herself up to land and she, and the red head tumbled in a heap on the forest floor.

After a few moments of silence, Ruby picked herself up, slowly, her back screaming, her shirt all but torn to shreds. "W-well… we made it. Didn't we—?"

A chill passed through Ruby as she saw where she had landed. Bodies littered the tiny clearing, dead and dying men and women alike. Some skewered and hanging in midair on tree branches. Some lying against the trunks. Some with faces bashed off by clubs or bonbori. Some with stab and arrow wounds that were sure to kill slowly as possible as they moaned their agony.

Ruby gulped. _'I've seen worse… Dear god… I _have_ seen worse…' _Had she? She didn't really know. But it made it less horrifying to tell herself so. After the hundreds of scarred battle sites she'd seen even just today, this was one brought fear to her bones.

"Aye, we did…" The woman said, her eyes staring, but hard and cold, her hands beneath her, straining to lift herself. "Come then, medic. H-help me up." She stated with what might have been a derogatory sneer if not for the plea in the words. "There's no help for these…"

Ruby almost glared. Didn't this woman care!? "I can't just leave them here!" She hissed.

"Fool girl! The weak fall behind! These women are beyond help!" The woman exclaimed, still trying to pick herself up as Ruby rose to her feet.

"_H-help… me…"_ Came a hoarse female groan as if to punctuate the other woman's cowardice. Ruby felt her respect for the older Amazon dwindle and fade. She wasn't even willing to try?

"God dammit…" Ruby hissed, as she brought herself up. Her clothes, scraped and scuffed till rags would look better, but still blazing with the neon blue proclaiming her a medic seemed to barely cling to her as she stood. Blood trailed down her back, and she could feeling pooling in the crevice formed by her dingy black pants.

Still, through the pain of each step, she walked towards that voice, ignoring the blustering of the coward behind her. Her eyes scanned the bodies. Dead, dead… dead. All dead.

"Where are you…?" She whispered, the sounds of acrid blaze and the cling of steel on armor, the sharp 'shink' of arrows in the distance ringing like a timer ticking down the seconds till escape was gone.

Ten escapes. A hundred. God, but she was tired. But… Her code. She could never give it up.

Not ever.

"_I'm… here…" _Came a small voice to her left. So small…

"_Medic! Please… I can't walk!" _The red haired woman behind her panicked but Ruby ignored her. Coming to where the whisper had echoed, Ruby looked down at a dead musk lying limply over a neon silver shield. Beneath the shield, lay another smaller body. Petite, only the legs stuck out from beneath the shield, hard green colored pants proclaiming the fallen girl an archer.

As if a cruel irony, an arrow protruded through one of those bruised legs.

Ruby grabbed the dead man and hauled him off of her, trying desperately not to keel over at the reeking stench, kneeling down and discarding the massive musk shield, to the sound of a small feminine groan.

Blood covered her hands at moving the man but it was only a coating for more. Some the red-haired woman's. Some belonging to herself. More to others still, now resting in Kinagoda.

Below, Ruby found a girl with shimmering neon blue hair of the richest color she had ever seen. Kneeling, moving with a care foreign to her before she had donned her medic cloak only three days ago, Ruby turned the girl over, cradling her close and looking into her eyes.

"Are… you real…?" Came the girl's tired whisper. A cough, and blood trailed down her lips.

Ruby shuddered. "I'm real…" She said her mind reeling. This girl couldn't be older than fourteen. "I… I'm gonna get you out of here okay?"

The girl's face lit up. "Out of here… ye-yes. That sounds, g-g-…" She coughed again, and ruby silenced her, laying the girl's head gently to the ground.

"I'm… sorry. This," Ruby paused as she studied the arrow in the girl's leg and decided. "This is going to hurt." It had to come free and get a bandage, _now._

"R-Ruby! Please! Help me!" The red-haired woman was hysterical now. So much for hard and cold Amazon.

"_Shut UP!" _Ruby hissed, and the other woman's cries were silenced.

"_No…_" The blue haired girl protested weakly. "No more pain. Let me die… I'm rea—! I'm ready—!" Yet another wave of coughs overtook the girl.

Ruby refused. She wouldn't let this girl die. She couldn't… She had to protect everyone… she had to destroy the Musk…! She had to… she had… to. God she was so tired. Steeling herself, she placed her hands on the arrow shaft. Too much blood was leaking from the girl's tendon, and so Ruby did all she could. She held the leg. And pulled.

An ear splitting scream erupted from the girl, and Ruby only felt more cruel as she brought out her wraps of gauze. She was running low, but that didn't matter. She'd make it back to Kinagoda soon… Only about a half hour's walk on her own. Much longer with the two of them, but she could do it.

She hoped…

Her arms screamed in protest at the mere _thought_ of carrying another human the half mile back to the city's walls, but… _'Only a half a mile…'_ Her stomach twisted, but she steeled herself as she always did. _'I can do that.'_

The greater fear, the Musk forces, if they were still only small platoons, were fighting only half a mile from the city, and were only sending small waves of men from the massive army that lay no more than five miles east. And yet the Amazon's were _still_ being crushed.

'_No.' _Ruby thought heatedly. _'We're going to _win_ this war.' _

She thought it, and she believed it. But she couldn't see how. It felt… so… hopeless. Scouts had reported that the scores and scores of soldiers camped five miles away from the city, poised to destroy them all, were a pittance compared to the army that still resided further still in the musk cities.

_Musk… cities…_

Ruby had thought there had only been the one. What a fool she'd been. But it didn't matter. The Musk would fall. Someway.

Somehow.

Her bandaging finished, the wails of her newfound friend died a little, as the girl tried to hold her pain in, tears leaking down her cheeks mingling with the blood in her ears. It wasn't a pretty sight… but she was alive. She was someone's baby.

That firmed her nerves as she hefted the girl's arm around her shoulder and dragged her onto her back. Her limbs in agony, the cuts on her back from stinging in searing crisis, she slowly stood, and walked. One step. Two. Three…

"Get out of here…" The girl murmured. "Let me die…"

That only firmed her resolve more.

The girl's feet drug along the ground behind her, but Ruby could tell the blood was already clotting in the leg. The arrow hadn't been the only wound the girl had, but it was the one she had fallen from. Blood loss. Always blood loss killed more fighters than ever the blade itself did.

After an hour of dragging the girl, or what seemed an hour, Ruby finally reached the red head. She allowed herself one small whimper as the woman stared up at her, and pushed with all her might to rise, not questioning Ruby's offered hand.

The blue haired girl fell unconscious after a few minutes of walking through the menagerie of the dead. And the other woman did her best to walk, her own legs riddled with scores of wounds that looked to be caused by blades. More, the same twigs that had scarred Ruby's back from the falling tree had not left the other redhead unscathed.

For hours Ruby trudged on, her path somehow unhindered by any Musk contact. Trees slowly thinned and patches of grass and tilled soil where rice and grain had once grown lay in disarray. Battle had reached even here… though there were less bodies at least.

After the endless silence and dimming echoes in the distance, Ruby jerked at the sound of a voice.

"You… are Ruby. Caring to your last breath. I'm… sorry… I was afraid." The red-head said, and Ruby jerked awake from her endless toil of counting steps, each one bringing her closer to falling and just closing her eyes right there on the field.

She didn't blame the woman. Not much, though she felt little sympathy either. "We are all afraid." She stated, in what she hoped was a sagely tone. Another step. God her arms were burning! Her legs were melting jelly… they wobbled furiously and her eyes threatened to close with each agonizing pull forward.

And suddenly, in the distance, she saw it. Only a short hundred feet away… turned on its side, but by gods it was useable! _'A wagon!' _ She exclaimed, just as the still nameless redhead voiced "A wagon!"

Turning to the left… to the right, she saw no one. The sun, now almost utterly obliterated from the sky, moonlight providing as much light as the dim fringes of twilight took over, lit the path before her as she gently, oh so gently, placed the two women down.

Walking to the wagon felt like walking on spring air without the two bodies burdening her, and in what seemed only a few short minutes, though she knew it had to have taken longer, she had the women lying on the back of the cart, and herself strapped the harness where a horse or donkey would once have been.

_'Soo… heavy….!" _She heaved, but it was lighter than carrying them.

And they moved. By the gods it was only a half an hour's run! Was she going the wrong way!? No. No, she recognized the signs… the village was near. Near, but still so far. Taking the small path leading from the distant farm towards a main road, Ruby trudged along carrying the two women on the wagon. They lay on soft, itchy, broken bales of straw, but it was the best she had been able to provide.

Another mile… another battle zone, another search. No survivors were found.

Another mile, and Ruby heard a whimper… another girl, this one unusually plump for an Amazon with hair that had once been green and glistening like a paler version of Chell's, was missing an arm. Well… she was out of gauze, so Ruby removed her shirt, leaving only the slim fabric The Amazons wore to constrict their breasts clothing her top, and wrapped the stub of the severed arm. As ceremoniously as possible, she lay the woman beside the other two on the back of the cart.

And began pulling…

Another mile… another mile… So many dead. So many. As many wounded men lay beside their charred comrades, scalded by ki attacks, but Ruby could not summon enough sympathy to help them.

Not when they lay beside twice their number in dead women.

She continued on… and another two women, both unconscious but alive, were added to the wagon's load. Pulling the thing was like pulling a cement block twice her size through mud, but they kept moving.

'_Just one more person…' _Ruby kept repeating in her mind. _'It's only one more. I can handle that.' _

As she dragged the wagon alone black flecks started to flicker on the corners of her vision, and she fought them off ruthlessly. _'Gotta make it… only a few miles.' _She thought.

And to her relief, finally the great barricade, a wall twenty feet high crafted of hundreds upon hundreds of trees, their trunks sheared into the finest points each jutting outward, a spiked palisade barring entrance to all enemies, came into view.

To Ruby's ever rising dismay, bodies, mostly men, littered the grounds outside. She'd thought that by now the shock of seeing wastelands of dead had sharpened her stomach to a fine point, able to handle anything, but surprise washed over her all the same, as bile threatened to rise in her throat.

The city had been attacked, but it looked as if the ranks of the Musk had been a mere fly swatter when they'd needed a hammer. Ruby could see what had happened. The men had rushed the walls and fallen like flies. Bodies littered with arrows lay at the feet of those massive trunks, each jutting out in all directions to circle the Amazon's smallest stronghold.

"C-Come on, Ruby…" She said to herself. "Just one more mile or so… that's all…!"

The wagon rolled a little further, it's creaking beginning to sound ominous in Ruby's ears as she finally reached a segment of downhill, leading towards the fortress.

"I think here's good." Came a sudden sharp command. "Lay Erieud down by over the-! Hey!"

Ruby jerked in shock as her eyes connected with the man. She was horrified to find someone had come so close without her noticing, but that only climbed as she saw what she faced. Six men, Musk warriors for certain by their dress alone stood a good twenty feet behind the wagon. A small platoon, looking for a place to rest from their appearance.

Fear gripped her as she saw them. Nothing like the torturers save for perhaps Borage, these soldiers radiated a power and experience that Ruby knew she couldn't hope to contend with. Not now. Not yet. Each wearing the black leather jerkins common in the Musk army they varied as much as soldiers could. Some sported gaping wounds that they appeared to not even feel. The first to catch her eye, a massive fighter with dark skin trained his eyes on her with a curious glint. His face was almost hidden by an odd blue cap that seemed to signify him from the rest, but it was his expression that was the most unusual.

Strange, Ruby found, to see a man look at her, not in lust, but in suspicion and apprehension. A sword on his hip that seemed unusually short for his massive stature seemed ready to be drawn on the instant, and his hands slowly hovered above them in concern.

"Well well…" The man who had been barking orders hissed. "It looks like we hit the jackpot."

Ruby stiffened. H-how? How had he gotten to the back of the cart so quickly!? Her eyes focusing on the bigger man, she hadn't even seen the soldier move, and now he stood hovering over the cart looking down on the women lying within. Only the redhead was still conscious and Ruby could almost _feel _the other woman's fear, staring into the man's beady brown eyes and mohawk.

"Jackpot indeed." He spoke again this time to her. _'Too close.' _She thought grimly, though what she could do about it was beyond her. She could only see his head over the side of the cart, but beside him rose the top half of a massive blade that seemed to stretch all the way to the ground emphasizing his almost orange mohawk.

"G-Get back!" She heard the other red-haired Amazon screech, an edge of panic in her that Ruby couldn't help but pick up on. She choked, guilt rising in her for bringing the other woman into this. Trying not to let her own fear rise as she threw the harness to the ground with a hollow thunk, every muscle still aching as she tried rushed to the back of the cart. It ended up as more of a hobble, but at least she didn't fall over. She paused at the side of the wagon, staring over the edge at the soldier.

"This one's already undressed for us! We've lost too many comrades today… I want _revenge._" The mohawked fighter laughed as he stepped forward around the cart to face her. He said he wanted revenge, but his tone did not seem to agree. His arms bulged with muscle that belied his slim form, and Ruby made a note of the air of command he seemed to hold. The smallest man of this group but still the others seemed to follow him.

'_If anyone is underestimated because of size, it's me._' She thought, knowing that it was more than possible this man was the leader. She refused to underestimate him, as so many had done to her in the past.

Ruby tried to summon the words to speak, old stratagems of making her opponents so angry that they made mistakes coming to mind, and being discarded as quickly. That only worked when you weren't going to be making mistakes yourself. She was so tired. Her eyes could barely remain trained on the man as she stood at the edge of the cart, staring at him from over the quivering red-head and the other unconscious girls and women.

Ruby stood stark still, taking no stance. Her limbs burned already but her eyes were wide. Hopelessness warred with the thrill as only the thought of battle could, and not for the first time she wished the manacles clinking on her wrists and ankles were gone. Hell, if she were even well rested, things wouldn't look so bad, but nothing could stop the rise she got from standing on the edge of a battle that she shouldn't be able to win.

Bits of Ranma left in her, she supposed. Utter idiocy. If she lost, she would envy the fate of the dead, and she knew it.

"Leave." She stated plainly, her normally quick wit coming up with no words. It was all that was needed.

"She looks as half dead as the harlots she's draggin'." Came a harsh yet young drawl, and Ruby's eyes snapped to a nearby tree. Erieud, the leader had called him, sat tiredly against it, having just been laid down by the one who had spoken. Neither were armed, and both looked almost exactly alike. Twins, each with deep black hair and long pony tails reminiscent of the one she had once worn. Back when she'd been male... so long ago now.

A fifth man, the oldest of the six had a white mustache that was warring for prominence on his face with an equally white beard. Bald otherwise and pale, he seemed more ready to kill than any, with hard eyes staring into her with a hatred that made even her quake. None of those things held her attention for more than the bow in his hands, arrow notched and ready to skewer her before she could blink, crossed her vision, and she couldn't help the involuntary jerk.

She couldn't help the momentary fear, but that was all it was. Was she ready to die? The question came quick, and the answer, quicker. _'Yes. I am.' _Her fear abated quickly with that. Of the arrow at least. _'But I don't want to.'_ As if pleading with her, a small kick came from the unborn child growing within her. _'I don't want you to die either, little one.' _The thought brought a newfound fervor to her, and her seemingly unbearable fatigue abated. Just a bit.

Taking time to survey the final man in the group, she noticed a young man, probably at least a year younger than her with a nihilistic grin on his face as he tossed a serrated dagger into the air and caught it repeatedly. A straw of grass stuck out of his mouth, but he seemed no weaker than the others. Youth bringing him lust, he stared openly at her barely-covered breasts. Surprisingly, he seemed to be the only one doing so.

"I said _leave!" _Her voice firmed, and she moved forward with a speed that surprised even her. Her arms screamed but the punch she threw rang true, slamming straight into the mohawked man's chest, staggering him a few steps away from the wagon and the precious lives inside. Most importantly she separated him from his weapon, leaving the thing buried in the dirt just enough to leave it standing beside her.

The man looked utterly shocked, not by the punch but by how weak it had been. Staring at her wonderingly, having never encountered an Amazon that pulled her punches before, his eyes found the shackles clinking on her wrists. A slow smile spread to his face.

"You gonna fight all of us…? Eh, healer?" The man's mohawk reminded her of a fox somehow, and she realized dimly that the man might easily have had a fox for a mother. She grit her teeth, and clenched her hand into a fist, dropping into a low fighting stance. A simple stance... anything more complex and she would fall without even needing these men to fight her for it. The baby protested with a kick, but she ignored it.

"Should I kill the bitch, Sadoya?" Came the old warrior's rough voice, his bowstring drawing just a bit tighter, as Ruby readied herself for a catch she was almost sure she wouldn't be fast enough for.

The dark skinned man turned to him with a pacifying gesture. "Stay your bow, Grausund. This girl is on her last leg. Haven't you had enough killing for one day?" The lumbering man murmured.

_'Great,' _Ruby thought, in the corner of her brain that still had enough energy for sarcasm. _'Big and peaceful.' _The man's hand had never strayed more than five inches from that sword at his hip.

"Agreed." The man with the mohawk called Sadoya she supposed. "I've had enough of battle today." He insinuated, heaving the blade. Ruby was almost shocked by the weapon. A two foot handle in the center of two blades jutting forth from either side, each another two feet long and three inches wide, like two broadswords sewn together into a staff taller than the man himself. He held the thing easily in his left hand, one end stabbed into the ground behind him. "Many of our brothers fell today. I don't know about you but I think I'd like to add to our number. Tell me girl, how would you like to bear my child?"

For some reason that Ruby simply could not fathom, she felt flattered by the fact that the man had not noticed she was already pregnant. Anger battled that emotion down easily, and the seriousness of the situation overwhelmed that by miles. She would not dignify the vulgarity with response. She was Ruby! She would not be mocked… not by this rabble. She'd faced down Marjoram himself. Killed him on her own! Musk peons should be nothing! Energy filled her. Two hours without using her ki had restored the beaker that she was able to produce, but her limbs ached even more at the thought of using it. Still. No choice…

She took a fighting stance coolly and stared down their laughter, noting that the large man in the back had not joined in. He was eyeing the shackles around her wrists and ankles warily.

"Come on…" She taunted, one eye on the arrow set to run her through, the other on the man before her. Her chances of remaining uncaptured, hell of even _living_ through this were declining by the moment, but she feigned confidence she no longer had. It was the only way she knew. Defiance to the very end. "Think you can take me?"

The skinny man jerked his eyes to her again and was about to bark a reply when she flashed, bursting away from the side of the cart forward first to the two wounded men. Her mad dash proved to have been not a moment too soon as the she heard the sharp thunk of an arrow sliding inches from her cheek and into a tree behind her. Running with all she had, her foot bouncing off Sadoya's surprised face, she readied her nimble fingers.

Precision that she had never known before the past month's training under Mai the Fiercebladed was the only thing that kept her alive as she weaved under a shuriken thrown by the boy with the straw, still running. Her knowledge of pressure points was her only advantage now, and Mai had honed that knowledge to a point as fine as that of a sword. Sliding into the range of the twins, she spotted her target and took aim. The wounded one was no threat, so she struck at the surprised ponytailed fighter. The results were instant. Two quick jabs and the man's throat ruptured at the apple, a bloody mess covering her left hand in the moment it took her to get away.

Disgust welled in her, not at the blood, but at the inefficiency. Too much ki. She'd used too much. She only needed to _block_ the damn airway, not cut it open! Still, the function served as the soon-to-be-dead soldier clutched vainly at his throat, blood seeping through his fingers.

She whirled as quick as her feet could take her, but she could not block the swift kick that slammed into her back. From which fighter she couldn't tell as she staggered forward and her face smashed into a tree. Pain welling in every limb, she felt a pair of hands press against her shoulders, locking her against the tree. She struggled, but to no avail as shadows began to hover behind her, surrounding her. Shock bloomed within her as another hand reached between the tree bark and her chest to squeeze one of her breasts.

_'N-No! God damnit! No! Erudei! Erudei!" _A despairing scream raged behind her, and even amidst the firm hands roaming her chest the hard bark her cheek smashed into, she couldn't help but feel the same guilt that welled into her every time she killed.

Even that faded though, when a fourth hand slipped under the rope serving as a belt around her waist and touched her. Overwhelming hatred bubbled up to a froth within her. Nightmares began to flash before her eyes. Men. Many men… touching her… torturing her! Rage burned within her soul, and her ki burst forth in a torrent. A river. A flood! Her body began to glow a deep and menacing red, ki fueled by her endless anger. Her veins filled with golden scorching heat, holding within them enough power to make the sun itself weep in envy. Channeling that force into her elbow, she rammed into the chest of the man behind her.

Ruby didn't need to see the damage her desperate attack had inflicted; she could _feel _her elbow had ripped through her attacker's sternum and gut his chest cavity in a crunching splatter. His spine was next as life blood poured from his torso, but that wasn't her concern. Rage. She would not let them touch her again. Never again. _NEVER AGAIN!_

The men stared at the remains of their comrade in shock, and only then did Ruby realize that it was the boy with the dagger she had killed. But she didn't care, not much at least. She was thankful only for the moment that their roaming hands ceased. Witnessing the unreal power behind the small redhead, the soldiers groping had stalled completely, giving her enough time to leap, wrenching herself away from their damn paws.

"Sadoya…" The big man murmured, staring at the red-haired girl. "Look at her… her wrists… it's _her!" _

Sadoya sniffed, having backed away from Ruby. He'd been the one touching her... touching... Her anger brewed anew as she watched him, her breath ragged. Hatred burned to match her own in the fox-man's narrowed eyes, but his words were not for her. "Maybe she is... I'd never believed the wives tales from the capital. Che..." He snapped.

Ruby breathed heavily, the burst of rage gone, but still boiling just beneath the surface. They were going to take her back… they were going to make her… make her...! No. She wouldn't let that happen… she… wouldn't!

The black flecks were threatening harder than ever to bring her to collapse. Her legs wobbled and her stance faltered for only a moment, but that was all it took. Sadoya flashed forward, his movement hidden by the blackness surrounding her vision and pain erupted in her stomach as his fist blasted her. She doubled over, eyes wide at the pain, falling onto his crouching shoulder in a vain effort to catch her breath. She couldn't feel… couldn't think as he knelt lower and wrapped his arms around her legs, tossing her over his shoulder like a sack.

'_No, No, No, No, NO!" _Her mind screamed over and over in protest, but her limbs only dangled helplessly. Deep within her, something broke. She was going to be taken back… all her effort was for nothing.

Nothing… Nothing…

Her eyes fell blank, glazing over into gray portals looking inward on the past, and the future sure to come.

"Come on… she even provided us with free transportation." Sadoya stated awkwardly, trying to laugh as he stared down at his fallen compatriot. It was war, and he was a soldier. Sorrow for the dead had to be pushed away. "I haven't had a good schaat in weeks and tonight is definitely a night for it." He stated, his eyes finally turning grim as he cast a glance at the bodies lying at the foot of the walls far down the slope. He took a step towards the wagon, and that moment was all he had to realize that the redhead tossed carelessly over his shoulder was shimmering green. It was the last thing he saw before she exploded.

A vortex of ki, depression in its purest form blasted into the air. Green and black, spinning like a writhing twister, shrouding Ruby and the Musk bastard from the eyes of the others. Hiding what happened inside. But Ruby saw through glazed eyes that cared for nothing beyond her pure despair. In her eyes, all she could see- all she could _feel_ -was the endless hands. The chains. The shackles… the collar around her neck.

She could hear Sadoya's scream, but it was as if she wasn't truly there. He tried to throw her, push the burning body of the once adorable redhead away from him, but as he tried, she grappled him, her arms encircling his shoulders and pulling him close. _'You wanted me... right? I'll never escape... Never.' _She whispered, almost deliriously as if her mind wasn't truly seeing what was happening. Her depression would not abate and the ki within her raged, exploding in the tornado they resided within. Sadoya's scream only grew louder as raw power overwhelmed him. His body seemed to lose any form of cohesion that held it together, and pieces ripped apart. Appendages blasted away, torn into the ever closing barrier circling them, the artificial wind ripping his detached body parts into mere dust and atoms. His eyes seemed to melt into nothingness, skin ripping off of flesh and blood, all of it flying up the raging tempest Ruby's depression had conjured.

The vortex finally abated, a second that lasted a lifetime, the last of the eerie green waves of light flashing away into the sky ripping a hole in the clouds overhead. Ruby stood her hands wrapped almost lovingly around the charred form of skeleton, her head pressed firmly against the bones where Sadoya's chest had once been.

Just before it crumbled to dust, leaving only the skull, cradled in her smooth fingers.

The men's mouths hung open, most of them blown off their feet as her eyes slowly rose to meet them. The redhead's pupils and iris were _gone_; lost to the sickly green energy boiling from what could have only been a demoness, summoned to possess the girl and devour their very souls as easily as she had their leader. The skull in her hand disintegrating into dust as well, flaking away into the wind while her gaze swept across the survivors. No words were necessary since her sightless gaze communicated everything the remaining Musk needed to know, devouring every last remnant of confidence they possessed. It spoke of only death and despair, and the Amazon's message was communicated with absolute clarity...

_...Remain and die._

The men scrambled to their feet like rabbits running from a fox. No. Like mice scampering from a brushfire, they fled screaming in terror. Even the wounded man forgot his dead brother and crawled away as fast as his weak limbs could take him.

Ruby held her ground for a moment, staring after the fleeing musk warriors until the burning green and black fires around her abruptly guttered. Ruby fell to the ground inert, eyes staring blankly into her nightmares for what seemed hours more, until exhaustion and sleep finally overtook her.

Until the Amazon patrol sent to investigate the strange green energy pillar arrived, the only sound in the clearing was the quivering of the red-haired Amazon, and the stirring of her unconscious compatriots from the back of an impossibly undamaged wagon.

* * *

* * *

_"Is... Is she alright--!?" _The voice was dim to Ruby, but awareness of sound came before she realized that her eyes weren't opening.

"She is alive. But that's all we know, now. In a few days we might be able to..."

The voices faded to an unusual muffle before she could hear anything else, the edges of unconsciousness beckoning her back into their embrace. She refused as strongly as she could, just long enough to become aware that the concerned voice was Aktaya. Beautiful Aktaya. Her friend...

Her last thoughts before the darkness of unawareness took her were to wonder if little Tir was doing okay.

It happened like that more than once. She faded in, still unable to open her eyes, the words of those around her sounding muffled to her tired ears. Moans of others in the ward. Cold analysis delivered from medics and healers who became more and more used to the reality of death.

Even in her state of partial consciousness, Ruby felt the tension grow in the air around her. The war was not faring well. Every moment she was aware of her half conscious state she strove to wake, to rise, to _help_, and each failure only made her more determined. In the between times, when sleep held her in fully in its thrall nightmares plagued her along with dreams of peace and happy times that she could recall. Times before the war.

A hundred times a hundred dreams, and even more muffled words before she finally rose to actually understand something again, and with this time, the awareness brought pain. Her legs ached like they'd been roasted on a spit for hours and then made to run the length of China. Her arms felt like rubber, wormy and useless, crisped with the same flame as the rest of her.

But it was a soreness, not direct pain. She was healing. She was sure she was healing.

"...can tell she's been using her ki almost constantly for the last year--Yes! I know she can't use it! But she _is!_ With the shackles limiting her she used her ki beneath them, but it wasn't ever able to leave her body... so it expanded her limits."

A pause. What were they talking about?

"Yes. Yes it's as if she hasn't stopped once. She... I think she's even pushing in her sleep. You've seen it; that glow beneath her skin... You've seen her. We all have."

Her eyes fluttered suddenly, as if her mind finally plugged in the circuits needed for movement, and the stretch she attempted ended in failure as the full sensation of '_awake_' overtook her. "_Wh...where?" _She spoke weakly. Her lips felt like dry bread crusts and her throat felt worse.

"By the goddess, she's awake!" Came the shocked cry of a voice Ruby didn't recognize save from the dreams. Wait, were they dreams? What was that about limits? Her mind felt fuzzy, but her vision seemed to suddenly snap into focus. The nurse-- no _trained_ healer could possibly be that young --seemed to be training for a mother hen contest with her squawking but Ruby couldn't fault her for that. Deep black hair tied back in a ponytail that hung to the middle of her back framed a cute baby face that seemed better suited on a babysitter or maybe an elementary teacher.

It wasn't right, a young girl like her a healer, and from the looks of her, well trained at that. She didn't look right with those bloodshot eyes, and the unnaturally clean hands, surely a result of her attentions to the wounded.

Her body felt like it hadn't moved in ages. Burning and searing was an old feeling, still strong. Still there. Dim as if weeks old.

She threw her legs over the side of the bed, and stood. Her muscles ached, but it didn't take her long to realize that no matter how bad she felt, it was nothing compared to the days in the Musk kennels.

"You fool girl! Get back in bed! Get back in--!" The nurse had no right to call a _five-year-old_ a girl, but she did, and her tone was surprisingly firm. It didn't matter though. As she met Ruby's eyes, her tirade guttered with a blanch.

_'Is she afraid...?' _Ruby thought dimly. Abruptly memories resurfaced. The men... the men she'd killed. She saw it all through eyes unclouded by the despair that had served as a wall between her and the abyssal power within her. _'By god... she _should_ be afraid! What... how did I...?" _Her memories seemed focus on the ki she'd held. The utter depression spawning that hellish twister that had ripped away the Musk's very skin. She remembered feeling his skull crumbling into dust, falling like sand through her fingers. She couldn't help but feel the parallel to that, and the hideous memories of her meeting with Tsingtao. He'd done the same thing.

_'What am I becoming?' _She thought in worry.

"The war..." Ruby began quickly, her mind suddenly jumping to the reason for her battle on the outskirts of the city. "Those women in the cart! Were they alright? Did they--?" Ruby trailed off leaving her question unasked. Words weren't needed, her worry voicing itself; it took her a moment for the frightened healer to answer.

"O-one died." She stuttered. "The girl who'd lost her arm. Erita. The others have all recovered."

"Erita..." Ranma mouthed, scorching the name onto the tablet of graves her mind had conjured for her. Eika. Aiuke. The old woman. Her first kills. Well. Her first female kills. As she wracked her brain for the names of any men she'd killed. Somehow, Marjoram was the only name that came to mind. Thinking harder she discovered two names. Rallum, and Kadred. She hated herself for the fondness that crawled up her spine at the memory of stuffing Kadred's dead body down the wastehole in her cell. That should have pained her, she realized, but his name made it no closer to that mental gravestone for that.

She'd seen other women die. Watched them die in the battle over the last few weeks trying to rescue them. Many had been nameless to her at the time, but she chiseled their faces into her mind forever, and now she added another. Erita, a green haired girl who'd lost her arm and her life battling the Musk.

Ruby turned and began walking towards the exit of the Remedy Cabin, as they called it here and ignored the nurse's surprised squawking as she grabbed her clothes lying on the side of the counter. Ignoring the girl, she shucked the patient's robe she had been dressed in and put the donated woolens on, and then walked towards. The girl made to get in her way as she made for the door, but again, she flinched at Ruby's eyes, and meekly moved out of the way. Ruby pushed the door open and left the room and the seven other patients it held behind.

The first thing Ruby noted when she walked out into the dirt covered street was the people. Or the significant lack of people. Now, no children played at tetherball or tag around the streets. No merchants groaned at the antics of children while bartering away their items for coin. A significant lack of men hanging clothes on clotheslines or standing at windows or over tubs of washbasins seemed to punctuate the occurrence of something major during Ruby's rest. The villagers, those who couldn't fight, had evacuated.

Quiet. That was what it was. Quiet. Soldiers stood everywhere, walking, training in the training grounds visible from where she stood, or in the distance, up on the battlement walls. Women of all ages, and all sizes, almost all carrying a weapon and an edge of unease about them as they walked. They were everywhere, and yet the city felt so...

...empty.

_'Is Aktaya still here?' _She wondered sadly. _'Chell will be surely.'_

It saddened Ruby more how little she'd seen the other woman. Chell's ambition, an almost mad drive keeping her up hours into the night, was her daughter Elli. The woman had become almost single minded in her quest for a way to retrieve the girl, spending hours looking over maps and compasses and stratagems for entry. Forgetting to eat, sometimes for _days, _the woman seemed shocked whenever Ruby happened upon her. But it seemed her efforts _were _in vain. Getting out of the Musk realm was probably easier than it would be to get back _in, _and rescue someone_. _But she was still Chell. She wouldn't have left here. Somehow, the broken woman Ranma remembered first meeting what must have been almost a year ago now had become a pillar of strength against the Musk. Chell was the proof that anyone in those kennels, anyone wearing that damn collar could come back from the brink.

And if Ruby had her way, one day she would save them all.

"Ruby!" Came a voice Ruby had not been expecting to hear. "You're finally awake! I thought... I was starting to think you..."

Surprise dotted her features as she realized that she'd been walking. She hadn't known it but her feet had a destination, and they'd taken her right to it. The pain of waking had faded to a mere dull throb and been forgotten almost entirely during her extensive thoughts, but now it returned a bit as she became aware of where she was. Her eyes focused on the area around her and she found herself in her favorite training ground. Trees dotted the entire area, much like many of the training grounds situated about the massive city, most riddled with small holes where arrows had littered them in the past.

No matter how much Chell had changed since leaving the Musk realm behind, Aktaya topped her by miles. The girl looked almost exactly as she had back when Ruby had first met her... if one were speaking of her figure alone. Otherwise, that was where the similarities ended. A slim thing, now that the weight of having her baby had been exercised off, and slimmer still for her training. Everything about her that had once screamed _'school girl' _though had washed away. Leather pauldrons on her shoulders matched a tight leather jerkin that she wore proudly. A white skirt, fringing down to her knees beneath the jerkin, rested over a pair of skin tight red pants that seemed to flow with her as she moved. Leather boots adorned her feet along with a pair of gloves to match, the one on her right arm having been slid beneath the manacle somehow. Her chest, marked with a Japanese Kanji for 'Resilience' as her sigil seemed to top the image of, making the once weak girl seem almost knightly. She stood there staring at Ruby, an expression of joy lighting her face as she plunged a sword that was nearly her height in length into the ground and leaned on it.

Without warning, Ruby felt a shiver rush up her bones and a short jump in her chest as a strange emotion overtook her. She recalled dim fringes of the emotion from before her imprisonment. She'd felt it before many times, back during her stay in Nerima. Xian Pu came to mind most prominently but all of her fiancées had evoked it, each in their own subtle way. Even Kodachi.

Attraction. Lust. Honestly, it scared her a bit, and she fought to collect herself. "Aktaya? Why are you still here?" Ruby asked feigning calm, trying to figure out why Aktaya had just suddenly sparked such attraction. Only after she spoke did she realize that the question probably offended the girl.

Aktaya frowned, tossing her now long brown hair. "Nice greeting." She stated giving the redhead a wry look, that bordered offended. It failed to reach though, as Aktaya was well aware that Ruby had a way with words that resembled a stone. She recognized the concern blooming within the question, and responded accordingly. "I touched my ki for the first time a few weeks ago." She stated. "You were still unconscious then. They say I'm where their twelve year olds should be. If... if you didn't see them, those twelve-year-olds are here, waiting to fight. I am too."

Ruby felt a bit of shock. _'I've been unconscious for _weeks_!?' _When that faded, a whole new question came to mind. One far more important. "But... what about Tir? Is he--?"

Aktaya turned her back on Ruby and huffed. "I sent the little brat with Heiona to Joketsuzoku. She was the midwife--Er... Foremaid, they call it here, I think."

Ruby _was _shocked at that. Little brat? What had happened to cause such anger in Aktaya? Had she started to dislike the child because of his father? No... it couldn't be that. From what Ruby could remember, among torturers, Aktaya's husband Veter had been a _saint_ when compared with most of the Musk.

The girl suddenly grinned, looking lazily over her shoulder, that massive sword somehow held in one hand lumbered over her back. When did she do that? Ruby hadn't even seen her move the thing. What was she thinking using that giant thing? It couldn't possibly be her best choice, but the other girl's words drowned out Ruby's thoughts. "Thought that would scare you. It's true though. The little kid cries like there's no tomorrow. He's a complete and total brat, but I love him for it."

Ruby couldn't help but grin, her worries placated. "Is that so?"

The girl nodded. Then without warning she moved almost as fast as Ruby herself could, and suddenly the massive sword was falling towards her in a great arc. A handle a foot long, the girl held it as if it weighed half an ounce, and swung it as if she were swinging a stick. A broom. A feather! Dodging to the left, Ruby grinned. The sword slammed into the dirt of the ground, and lodged there. Ruby assumed she had the time to steal the win quickly. This little battle was ridiculous. She was a seasoned master, and even without her ki, Aktaya couldn't possibly stand a--!

The girl twisted the weapon, flinging dirt up to obscure her uncannily quick movement. She circled Ruby, the sword following along the ground creating a long scrape in the dirt before she rose it with a spiral swing, that Ruby was shocked to find had nigh on perfect form. Ruby knew she couldn't hurt Aktaya, but she was quickly beginning to realize that the girl had not been slack in learning, and if she didn't put up at least a mox offensive the girl might accidentally slay her!

But why the massive sword? A buckler and spear, or maybe a short sword would make so much more sense!

Reality seemed to disagree as the sword's glinting blade tip sliced within inches of her arm, whirling around the dark-haired girl with a momentum that Ruby herself would have had trouble imitating. Dust seemed to trail into the sky as the spin slowed and stopped, the girl lumbering the massive blade, point aimed at Ruby as her feet skidded to a halt.

"Well, well." Ruby said with a mocking grin as she finally realized what the other girl wanted, settling lightly into a fighting stance. "Someone's been practicing."

Aktaya nodded. There was confidence in her expression but a grim look overtook her. "I..." Her eyes turned to the sword. "I wanted to go with Tir. To Joketsuzoku... but I couldn't leave you. So... I..."

Ruby could hear the words she left unsaid. _I stayed behind. I want to fight beside you. I... stayed for you._

A small blush crept up Ruby's cheeks as she realized there was a very good chance that her imagination had added that last one. Aktaya was a girl... and as far as she knew, so was Ruby. It wasn't going to happen. But... that didn't mean she couldn't help the girl. It looked like she already had an amazing trainer, but there was always room for improvement.

"You're an idiot." Ruby said with a smile. Aktaya looked almost hurt for a few moments until Ruby blurred, slipping into the other girl's defense and grabbing her wrist, securing the giant sword to the ground with a swift shove. "You need to hold it like _this." _She stated, and then proceeded to place the girl's hands and feet.

Ruby stayed out with Aktaya, training and teaching her what she knew of wielding broadswords for hours. Sparring, or when tiredness began to creep into their eyes, just talking. And throughout the hours, each of them began to sense a sort of strange awkwardness that had never been there before. A fluttering where before there had been friendship.

Ruby had trouble stopping herself from outright _leering _when Aktaya seemed particularly graceful, but during one of her own practices, she was almost certain she'd caught the other girl doing the same to her.

Another hour and the sun fell, sending chills through their bones and spurs to their feet to move to the warmth of indoors.

Ruby and Aktaya had shared a small home for the past few weeks ever since Tir had been born. Caring for him had become one of Ruby's greatest joys, and internally, one of her largest fears. Her own child was on its way, and she could not help but feel she would never be ready. Her child would hate her, or worse, Ruby couldn't help but think of the small possibility that she would hate him. It tinged her soul, but every time she pictured the Musk spawn, she knew she would remember...

Remember that horrid place. The things that had been done to her, what felt like eons ago already.

"Tea?" Came Aktaya's light voice, and Ruby jumped, startled out of her deep thoughts.

Aktaya giggled at Ruby's jump, but Ruby effected to front a smile. She responded in the affirmative and took a cup and the kettle from Aktaya to pour herself a drink; she sat down next to the other girl on the plush Amazon form of what she supposed could be called a couch. Wooden posts and siding held four feather cushions that were quite large and comfy to sit in on cold nights like this.

The evacuations had begun long before Ruby had awoken, and many houses had already been available when they had first arrived. Amazons were not stingy about dwellings or properties. All Amazon holdings were the property of them or their sisters. Since most Amazon's considered even their most hated rivals sisters in some form or another, it led to relatively few disputes over boundary and ownership.

Among themselves anyway.

Silence hovered over them after that, as Ruby sipped at her drink, waiting for it to cool off.

At first the silence was normal. That of two friends just glad to be near the other. Worry for Ruby's injures faded from having watched the girl train most of the day, but as she stretched, it returned in part. Ruby seemed exhausted, but the happy grin on her face did something now that Aktaya had not felt for a long time. Not since before the Musk. It made her blood run. She'd never thought that another girl could do that to her. Not before the Musk, but she had changed now.

And... well... Ruby was her Hero.

Peace wasn't upon them by any means, but Aktaya wondered if she should be ashamed of feeling emotions such as these when war loomed so close to them. But she did.

After it became apparent that Ruby, barely clothed lying stretched over the back of couch cushions was _definitely_ bothering her, the silence became downright tangible. Aktaya had no choice but to break it, but Ruby had the same idea.

"So Ruby..."

"Ah, Taya..."

They stopped, and laughed, each having spoken at the same time.

"Aktaya..." Ruby continued after her laughter had faded. "There's something about me that you should know." Ruby stated, trying to find the words. Trying to... hide the words. Aktaya listened intently as the redhead floundered, but she made no comment, trying to give her the time she needed. After a brief pause Ruby seemed to gather herself as if for a battle. But Ruby was a master of battles, at ease in them when a war god would be worried. This, though, the girl seemed to struggle with, and Aktaya had trouble coming up with a possible reason for Ruby to be so... nervous? No. Apprehensive.

"I... Aktaya, I... am..."

Aktaya's fingers traced the redhead's cheek surprising even herself. She didn't remove them though as her eyes met Ruby's. Perhaps she was wrong, but it didn't matter. Aktaya stared into Ruby's blue orbs with fear and worry and embarrassment, and the security of knowing that she was forever safe with this red-haired prodigy.

"I know Ruby. Me too." Aktaya whispered gingerly.

The dark haired girl laced her fingers through red hair, and let her other arm flow where it would, landing lightly on Ruby's hip. The girl stiffened in utter surprise, but relaxed as their eyes met. Slowly, Aktaya moved closer her very motions depicting what she assumed Ruby had been trying to say.

_I don't think I could ever feel safe with a man again... not ever. But... With you I..._

The words in Aktaya's heart seemed to find mirrors in Ruby's. Not knowing she was missing the target by miles did not matter as Ruby's thoughts, her plans to tell Aktaya of her locked curse, and Ranma's story melted away. It didn't make any sense. It wasn't right, by her way of life, in Japan. But what was really _right _anymore? What was the honorable path when she had fallen so far? Her swollen belly was proof enough of that. As if ephemeral hands had pushed them together, Aktaya's fear and worry and embarrassment melted away as easily as Ruby's confession had died on her lips in the mood of the moment.

Their lips met, and their eyes fell closed. Love... a different sort of love. But love all the same. Each felt the other's soul singing in tune with their own.

And for a brief moment. A brief night. All was right with the world.

**

* * *

**  
_She stood staring down an oncoming charge of lumbering men, most twice her size, and she couldn't help the fear that covered her entire body. Questions ran through her mind as she realized this was surely going to be her final moment's here in this little life._

_'Why am I here?'_

_'What am I doing!?'_

_The men were getting closer. A massive tide of fighters sliding down the slope like a wave of humanity. No. An avalanche. Her mind told her there couldn't be more than five hundred... There couldn't be more than that, but her fear tripled their numbers and made her feel so very small. They charged, weapons bared, some flashing with visible spectrums of ki, all bulging with muscle and will to kill. What in 'god's' name was she doing here!?_

_"Hold the lines! Hold! They're not so strong!" A voice rose over the din. Inspiring in a chilling way, an old woman with deep white hair exclaimed before a massive burst of white energy encircled her. A sphere of ki, a barrier, she thought at first, but the elder was not finished. Abruptly pearly fist sized globes burst out from the transparent white circle the old woman encased herself in. Like homing missiles they blurred each leaving its own identical tail trailing behind it until they crashed into the ground before the lines of approaching men._

_Explosions wracked the earth as men flew, and screams began only a mere two hundred paces from the lines of amazons standing before the gates._

_She herself stood at the back, but she felt as if the breath of the musk lie right over her, each man trying personally to slit her throat. It horrified her, but at the same time... a sort of thrill rose in her._

_She was here. She was fighting like all of them. Fighting to keep the freedom she'd finally gained._

_Other elders created their own massive attacks each remnant of bombs and nihilistic power surges that seemed to be the very birth of destruction. From one she saw a great circle of lines and sigils form in midair, beaming with an eerie sound before fading away, as great molten meteors began to fall down from the sky above into the heart of the torrent of Musk. Another Elder threw a great cane up above the din of the Amazon's and a beacon of light flared at the staff's end. In counterpoint, a beam of white light shined for a moment almost three hundred paces off, right in the middle of the mass of male fighters. It flashed for only a moment before a great geyser of power burst from the depths of the ground sending bodies flying everywhere and leaving a crater in its wake. The men were torn asunder, their masses battered and beaten by ancient Amazon techniques. But not stopped._

_All the Amazon's great techniques seemed to be only throwing snowballs at the descending avalanche. Nothing could stop that wretched tide. She could feel an almost tangible hatred hanging in the air, like a living thing poised just a speck away from her skin. As the line of men and women finally crashed a good fifty paces in front of her, an epic scream of women defending their homes rose. Defending all that they were, the warcry rippled through their force as the charge of men broke somehow on their stalwart defense. Their ranks were plunged into a roiling mass of flesh and swinging weapons and battle. An oppressive heat seemed to seethe through the fighters like a noxious fume bearing down on them all._

_Without warning a beast of a man, his beady eyes and nose reminiscent of a massive boar, barreled through the lines to charge down everything in his way. But strangely as she watched him approach, her fear began to filter away. His eyes glared heated death to every women he could see, but the spears and arrows littering his body brought him down. He plunged nose first into the ground skidding along it not two feet in front of her._

_Her fear didn't abate completely. Whenever she'd been younger... before all this, she'd imagined battles and great struggles. Heard of them in history, and had been uninterested. Now she was, and her mind had conjured scenes of battle and heroes and emerging victorious. This was not like those stories, but... if she thought of the battle as if it were just one of them, she believed she could survive. She believed she could fight._

_Men seemed to span out to fight individually, a hundred one on one matches each interfering with the others as flailing weapons cleaved fingers as easily as arms. From her spot near the rear of the line of women, she could see battling everywhere, friends and foes alike. Elders ripping through their opponents with ease borne of centuries of practice. Youthful Amazon's parrying attack for attack, slaying as often as they fell._

_Young women, too young for battle, younger than even she, being cut down by the savage men._

_And she found her spark of anger, even as an opponent for her seemed to materialize from the fog of war. A man, taller than her as most were, shirtless and strong. He had a long snout of a nose and jaws resembling fangs mixed with deep eyes that made her think of a wolf. It was often easy to see where the Musk descended from, their features almost always mirroring an animal of some sort. A vicious one nine times out of ten._

_The man held a massive sword, wielding the thing in one hand. Bladed on one end it curved into a menacing tip. The flattened side frayed into strips of metal at the back and a series of gleaming amber gems decorated it at the base. Strangely, her fear didn't increase. The man stood challenging, and she stood ready. She held a slim dagger and no other weapon save the mere month of training she'd received. Relentless training, sun up to sun down. Forms drilled into her mind and martial arts being programmed into her._

_The sight of young amazons, younger than her, fighting and dying here setting her anger to a low simmer, she crouched to begin. Memories of another who fought when hope seemed lost drove her onward. She was weak. She was new at fighting. But how much stronger could her inspiration be? No. The world didn't ride on her friend's shoulders. She had to... carry her own cross. And battle came._

_For herself. For her newborn son. She would fight. Blowing her now long hair out of her eyes, she waited for the man to come. Her face settled into a confident grin that she hoped mirrored the one of her greatest friend, as she beckoned him forward with the mock of that grin._

_The man made the first move, closing the ground between them in moments as the massive sword fell towards her. A strike that would have cleaved her in two, had her feet not been perched to dart out of the way of the downward arc._

_Her eyes widened in shock as the man twisted the blade just before it struck the ground. Using the rising momentum, he bounced the blade to bring it swinging sideways, aiming to cleave her in two at the waist._

_Training left her as a desperate struggle to merely live spurred her feet. Though perhaps it hadn't left her completely because she chose to run towards the man, the hilt ramming into her shoulder instead of the sword slicing her in half._

_It was his turn to widen his eyes. Time seemed to slow around her as she realized that he wouldn't be able to touch her. Now was her chance. A dim moment she stared at the dagger in her hands. Simple, a wood hilt and a blade. Sharp enough to kill. But not sharp enough to penetrate a Musk soldier's skin._

_She'd done it before... now... now she just had to reach out!_

_She felt the single manacle on her wrist holding her back, but she pushed beyond it. Pushed. Pushed! And she felt it... a well of... something. Wonderful. Indescribable energy bubbling in her just waiting to be pulled out._

_She filtered that wonderful blue confidence melded with red anger into her arm, her wrist, her fingers and the tip of the dagger. All happening in a split second, her weapon plunged into the man's chest. A brief moment it held against his barrier of ki. And then the satisfying thud of her dagger splitting through his skin, a scream ripping through the battlefield._

_Her mouth dropped as she sunk to the ground with him, not thinking to let the dagger go as he grabbed her arm with it. Blood rushed out dribbling down his bare chest as they sunk to the ground together._

_"Y-You will fall... Amazon whore! You will _all_ fall!" His last words, defiant to the end._

_They fell on deaf ears as she fell to the ground with him, her limbs frozen now as she realized what she had done._

_'I've killed him. I've... I've killed a man. A... I've... killed.' She watched pleading for her thoughts to be untrue. Even knowing how much better the world was for each Musk death, her conscience would never be satisfied. Not with this..._

_Her hand reflexively gripping and slacking around the dagger she no longer really saw, she tried to pull herself up. To make the pain of what she had done ebb away, but nothing worked. She lay down atop the man, his eyes now glazed over in death, and let out a howl as the last shreds of innocence she may once have clung to were forcefully ripped from her in the act of her first murder. She screamed, and she wailed endlessly, her own eyes as unseeing as the dead Musk soldier's.  
_  
Aktaya screamed and jerked up in her bed, her breath coming in ragged strokes. Nightmares again. They'd plagued her for weeks now, ever since she'd first killed that man on the battlefield. She wasn't ready, or hadn't been. But then, who truly _was_ ready for their first murder? Even in war… It felt ill to her soul.

If anyone had been ready though… if anyone bore the scars better… It would be her.

Aktaya's eyes trailed down to Ruby, lying peacefully beside her in the large bed they'd been granted now that the men and children were gone. There was ample space now, and any luxury the soldiers could get was not taken for granted. There were more than enough beds to go around, but somehow, neither she nor Ruby had wanted to be alone. When she had closed her eyes the night before, and lay cuddled in bed, her friend's body heat and slow breathing warming the large wool covers, Aktaya thought that she could pretend this was a sleepover.

Just like back home.

But now, staring up at the wooden ceiling as she was, she could no longer pretend. Her eyes fell to the sword leaning against the wall, a gleaming beacon of memories, and more than likely the cause of the repeating nightmare. The sword of that man she'd killed. She didn't know why she'd taken it, but she had. This, she'd decided, was what she wanted. Her dreams. She couldn't give up, and her dreams now revolved around becoming strong.

As strong as...

Her eyes trailed to Ruby as a giggle crept into her thoughts. The girl's belly was finally starting to round out. Getting closer. Perhaps another two or three months. Maybe longer, maybe shorter. It was hard to tell without knowing when the girl had actually become with child. Now she lay on her back, face turned sideways and bits of drool leaked out over the pillow. Honestly, she was such a... _boy_ at times. It was really quite cute.

Abruptly her mind flashed to the night before, when they'd kissed. Slept together. Touched and held each other… kissed endlessly till blissful sleep had taken them. Even so, a massive blush crawled up her cheeks as she floundered on a way to describe her emotions for the other girl. Sometimes she felt like a sister. Sometimes, Ruby was more a hero from storybooks; a thing of legends. And then still others, Ruby was beauty. Pure and simple beauty that captivated her in ways she'd never dreamed of before. Ways she'd never dreamed a woman capable of.

As always, the intimate thoughts led her mind back to her dead husband. She remembered watching Marjoram kill him the night she'd been dragged to Ruby's cell. The night they'd escaped. She still didn't know what to feel about that. She hated and loved Veter at the same time. He saved her from the pain of torture. Took her. And at times, made her feel like she was a princess, touching her, kissing her as she'd always dreamed a man should. Other times, he was more sinister, though she had not wanted to watch him die.

Sunlight slowly began to creep into the fringes of the window. Dawn. _'When did I become an early riser anyway?'_ Aktaya thought ruefully, forcefully pulling herself from thoughts of the past as she rose from the bed and moved to grab her clothes. The slick red pants clinging to her skin like some archaic form of spandex made her feel embarrassed slightly at times, but the armor made up for it. When she looked at her reflection she honestly _felt_ she was looking at a character from a story. Scars of torture decorating her. Armor meant to ward off enemy attacks. A sword. It was all so... unreal.

A horn echoed in the distance and Ruby jerked awake herself at its call. A week had been all it had taken to program instant alert at the sound of that horn. Each blow of the thing represented a score of five hundred men come to attack. And the horn rang. One call. Two. Three...

...seven... eight...

After a time, Aktaya lost count. Today was the day. No more patrols sent to test the might of the Amazon farming city. No more parties of men set to circle the city, killing anything and everything not protected by its massive walls. No...

Today would be the final battle for Kinagoda.

Aktaya couldn't help but be afraid, but staring into Ruby's eyes she thought she could manage it. She would have to kill again today, she knew. But this time she could do it. This time, maybe it wouldn't hurt so much.

Ruby didn't even seem fazed by the endless calls of the horn. She stood, slowly, and made eye contact with Aktaya for a moment before giving a smile. Aktaya found herself returning one, as Ruby wrapped her arms around her in a hug that said everything and nothing. Pulling apart, eyes making contact for perhaps a moment to long, Ruby turned away and began to dress herself.

It was time.

The reaper hung over them, his scythe poised to swing as dawn crept over the land.

"Ruby?" Aktaya asked, her voice quivering slightly. "I... how are you so calm? Today's the day. Today's... We might die today." She stated, trailing off as she realize the implications of that horn, still echoing it's long low tone in the background. "I might never see Tir again."

Ruby turned from the window and faced her for the first time, and for a slight moment, Aktaya saw a strange look cross over the other woman's eyes. A look that vaguely reminded her of Veter; care and... and it could only be called lust gathered together in the same determined face. But it only lasted a moment before the grim determination that singled Ruby out anywhere overtook it all.

She stood, and Aktaya felt shivers crawl up her spine at the sight of the girl. In her glory, small cloth covering only her privates, and even so leaving very little to Aktaya's imagination, Ruby was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. Scars dotting her body only added to the lustrous shimmer the fringes of dawn cast over her through the light of the window. Aktaya was almost surprised when the girl's arms encircled her in a tight hug.

"Aktaya. I promise... no, I _vow_. You will see Tir again." The words, stated in a small whisper on the crest of morning seemed to have the impact of tumbling mountains.

Finally catching a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, tears began to spill from Aktaya's cheeks as the implications of Ruby's promise sunk in. Ruby had made a promise to bring Borage low. She had done so. She had sworn vengeance on the Musk, and she had yet to achieve it, but still she tried. And now, another promise. It meant worlds to her.

"I believe you..." Aktaya rasped.

For a second time they kissed, tears trailing both of their cheeks.

The horn was still sounding in the background, each solemn note lengthening the reach of the reaper's blade.

**End Chapter Nine**

**Author's Notes: **Heya all. Special Thanks sent out to Ozz for taking a proverbial bat to this fic. Bat turned into more of forge hammer.

I know my battle scenes have always been my Achilles heel. I suck at em. I don't know how to make them feel epic. Ozz does, and god damn does he do it well. I admit, I used some of his example writings instead of just writing my own for this so thanks a bunch Ozz! Mayhaps I'll be able to do better with fights from now on!

Doubt it but ya never know!

Also, special thanks goes out to both Mark Reynolds for his comments and being my idea bouncing wall and Google Documents for finally becoming the new instrument through which I write.

Microsoft Word… R.I.P. …

I've put mountains of effort into this chapter and I STILL didn't get to the Nekoken. As I'm slowly discovering this fic may turn out to be even longer than my Ranma/SM/WoT fic. I want to push the chapters forward but dammit there's just no way to do it plausibly.

I wanted to put some truly epic scenes into this chapter but for it to be epic, it needs proper build up and that's going to take probably the whole of next chapter… sigh… sigh…

So with a tired hand I give you this, what is probably one of my best pieces of writing to date. I really hope that it shows because this chapter was rough to write.

**Please Submit a Review so I know my dizzying efforts are worthwhile! **

**Till Next!**

**MB**


	11. Ever, We Stand

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, _many_ characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Ten  
Ever, We Stand**

_  
"The ages of time pass and we stand. The wisdom of history and the strength of youth and age in one, defiant to the world and its hatred, forward into the deep abyss. For as long as a drop of blood flows through our veins, and a smile still rests on the lips of but one sister we stand. Ever, we stand."_

_Sometimes I think these words, an Amazon creed, describe Her greater than any Amazon I have ever met. That day She showed why. We truly do stand, though we are no longer Amazons. Now we stand as long as a smile resides on Her lips. As long as determination rests in Her eyes. When all hope was lost then, she found a way. As long as She lives... There always will be._

_Now feels just as hopeless as back then. Maybe even more so. Our final assault begins at dawn, and I wonder, will this be my last entry? I did not even get the chance to write how we saved Illi. How... How Joketsuzoku fell... So many things I feel should have been said. About Her. About us._

_But I suppose it is enough. Yes. I will live through tomorrow. And I will finish this story._

_Because... She still lives. And there is still hope._

_She lives..._

_...ever, we stand._

* * *

Aktaya walked slowly. Her rage had cooled to a low boil but she had to admit, Ranma had been right. Home was... well, scary! But at the same time, joy filled her heart. Home! She was home! Strange as it was, she'd never felt more out of place.

People stared at her only slightly. Her eyepatch was a bit unusual of course, but at least she was dressed as a normal Japanese girl now. The gouges in her skin had healed over the years since her imprisonment. They were dim and faded and in her own opinion, made her look unique. She'd actually grown to like them a bit. More strange was the lack of dead weight on her back. It felt so unusual to walk anywhere without carrying her massive blade behind her. She found herself tipping forward at the most awkward of times...

She had it of course. The Amazon's hidden weapons technique was useful but admittedly she was still better at just carrying the thing around. Now that she was in non dangerous territory though, she hid it as best she could.

Her destination, of course, was Kosoketsu High School. The place where all her friends would still be. She hoped they would anyways. She hoped they would even remember her. She certainly remembered them. Saiporu had always been a character. Deep chocolate brown hair much like her own with freckles dotting her face to the point that it was a challenge to find a spot that _didn't_ have them. Her attitude was unusual, in that the girl had always liked to put up a strange sort of front. She pretended she was smart, but truly the girl had been quite the dunce. She wore glasses when she didn't need them to help her see, carried large textbooks around that she had _no_ intention of reading, and she would shun parties and hole herself up in her room for hours on end doing... _something_. Aktaya had never quite figured out what.

But at the same time she had loved the girl. Always the first to smile, the girl could make anyone laugh. She could get along with anyone if she only tried. Despite her shy personality, once someone reached into Saiporu's close circle they could never escape. Lifelong friend, or mere acquaintance were the only possible relationships between the girl and anyone. There was no in-between.

Toya had been the opposite. Outgoing and for the most part friendly, Toya had a temper that could make a _Musk_ envious! Well... maybe that was stretching it. Still the girl had never been afraid to speak her mind to anyone. A competitive personality, Toya had done anything to win, and grew petty and insolent when she lost at anything from a game of Ja Ken Po, to volleyball.

Still she had been a steadfast friend, if a bit more distant than Saiporu had been.

Other friends she'd had too of course. Aktaya had been popular for her looks, she knew now. Shortly before Lime and Mint had carried her away to China she had finally managed to become a cheerleader. Looking back, she had been too naive to realize that few of the people she had associated with beyond Saiporu and Toya had ever really cared about her. Sakura, head cheerleader, and the most popular girl one could ever hope to be had been her secret idol back then, and when she'd been accepted as a cheerleader she'd been giddy for weeks!

It all seemed so childish now. Ridiculously so. But still she needed to reconcile with her past.

Yes. She needed that. Reconcile with her friends._ Then_ go back to China and slice the newly crowned _Empress _to bloody bits! Really! The nerve he had! _Leaving her here! _That had to be the stupidest, most unthoughtful thing he could have ever possibly done! She already missed Tir to the point that she wanted to pull out her hair with worry!

But... at the same time, the peace _was_ refreshing. Peace in so many different ways.

The eye of the people had been cast off her and her. Here, she was unknown. Sure people stared at her. Pitied her even. But that was better than adoring her. That or hating her. Musk or phoenix survivors trying to kill her every now and then. Of course their main target was always Ranma, but she wasn't exactly a low priority.

That and the fact that it was nice to get away from the drama of Ranma's fickle heart; the boy was always leaning from his soon-to-be-born child, to her and Tir, and back. That said, she couldn't wait for the newborn either. A daughter. The first Musk daughter in three thousand years. She couldn't help but be happy for Ranma, and even jealousy was hard to develop when she loved the mother as much as Ranma himself.

That prompted another sigh... What was Ranma to her anyways? A husband, or wife? A lover? A friend? She couldn't... she couldn't come up with anything that fit. She loved him though. That was all that really mattered in the end.

As she walked, she found to her shock, that all the buildings and places she'd grown up with had changed little in the past two years. That wasn't the shock though. She knew they weren't but somehow everything seemed so much smaller. Spending a year hiking the better part of China would do that she supposed, but it still came as a shock when the window holding the wedding dress she dreamed of years ago came into view.

A new dress resided there of course, but what struck her now was how _close_ it all was. Two years ago she was so far from becoming married that the dress in the window seemed akin to glancing at the stars or touching the sun. Now it was something that she could attain, and wear for mere enjoyment if the fancy settled over her. Hell, she could steal the thing and get off scott free. Diplomatic immunity was sweet...

That thought had her snickering as her destination came into view. Midsummer heat burdened her but she knew school would still be in session. A fourth year high school student she was now, or would have been. Poking her finger idly into her eyepatch, a nervous habit she'd formed ever since she'd lost the thing, a tinge of apprehension began to settle in.

She had been well known. Many people would recognize her, even if they didn't interest her all that much anymore. It was strange how little the others mattered. Only Saiporu and Toya seemed to blare in her mind as important. She supposed she should give a passing hello to Takuma, the boyfriend she'd left behind.

Truth be told, he'd only been trying to get into her pants, though she'd been too much of an idiot at the time. He was popular. It made her fit in to date him. God she'd been such a _moron! _Though she supposed the things she'd been subjected to after Veter, Takuma would be a _schaat_'_s_ dream. An abrupt twinge of pain rippled across her shoulders as she recalled the poles Marjoram had shoved into them and shivered.

She wouldn't be considered attractive these days. Long ago she'd decided that _striking_ was the word that fit her. Her short hair. Her battle scars, particularly the one marring her face. Her dagger and sword. Just in case. The fact that she still carried her dagger visibly would probably be somewhat of a put off too. The ability to slice buildings in half might make some men feel a bit insecure...

Oh. And the whole 'missing her right eye' thing.

But what did all that matter anyways? She had Ranma. She was the... uhm... _consort_... yes... that worked. Consort... of the emperor of New China. Really, was there a point to school? A normal job? No. She had her life. It might not have been what she'd once wanted. It might not have been easy to get to it. But only one thing could make her happier than she was now... and that involved a certain black-or-red-haired emperor, a ring, and a ceremony...

Startled, Aktaya suddenly blinked her left eye, shocked to find herself already walking under the school's black gates.

People walked it's grounds as they always had, and Aktaya found herself happily recognizing a few faces. Eyes shifted to her in surprise at seeing her eyepatch and scar but she'd grown used to that. In China it was practically a symbol. She was... particularly well known.

Here it was almost... novel, to be stared at. Pitied she was almost certain, at least for a short while before the sunny grin that brimmed about her face drove that away. Home. She was home. More, she was surprised this place still felt like home, but it was. A second home. The first would be the place she had taken. The place they all had taken when they freed China from its tyrant oppressor. The Spire of New China, as it was called now. The House of the Empire. The Sky Tower. The Keep of the Sovi Dynasty.

Heh. _That _one still shocked the hell out of her. But the world was a strange place sometimes. Still, who knew Ruby's conquest would give rise to a whole Chinese empire under her surname?

Walking into the building she quickly stopped by the office. Speaking to the surprised secretary, Aktaya was disappointed to see no recognition on the older woman's face. Vinta Sugeshu had always had a positive attitude, comforting and pleasant at almost any time, the woman only took a moment to let her eyes wander around the grizzly scar sliding down her forehead and beneath her eyepatch. She also took a moment to note the school uniform, but thought little of it beyond that. She formally told her that Saiporu and Toya were in Gym.

Even as the old woman spoke, a high pitched bell rang sending a swirl of memories blurring through Aktaya's mind. The bell. School. Class periods. Breaks. Rushing so as not to be late when coming back from the gym.

All so long ago... so very long...

She thanked Vinta and left the room, armed with the knowledge of where her friend's classes were this year. Room 4-C. Wandering the halls, filled with students and teachers moving from room to room, rushing in ways that brought their own nostalgia, Aktaya gave up after four or five minutes of staring through un-recognizing faces. Hundreds she knew, and no one approached her beyond an apparent flinch upon first sighting her.

Sighing, she went to the room itself. A small grin burbled on her face. Ranma rubbing off on her she knew but she couldn't wait to see the surprise on her friend's faces when they realized who she was! Oh this was going to be fun!

Wandering through people she knew, each aged a few years, she crossed their wondering looks with a bright smile and took a seat at the back of the classroom. Sakura. Class rep. Cheerleader. Obnoxious little girl too, but time had filled her out a bit. Nagoya. Nerdy kid. Used to sit at the front of the class and always had his hand raised for questions the teacher asked. Bokka. Window looker. The kid hardly ever paid attention... ridiculously good at archery if she remembered right.

Turning to the entrance she watched students filter in, books in hand. Makyo. Ryu. Gonta. The bullies of her age group. The cool kids. The ones she'd been subtly interested in, but would never go for when she'd been a student here. Gonta had a tattoo now but other than that, it seemed they hadn't changed much. They still looked like complete jerks, and still held themselves in that self-superior way that made others irritated.

It reminded her of Borage. She'd never really known the man in the kennels, but by god did she know him later... After Jusenkyo touched him. Her fist clenched unconsciously as she forced down the rage and anger. It wasn't too hard now. Borage had gotten his due, and that always brought her anger down to a satisfied smile.

Name after name after name came to mind as she watched them, each of them eyeing her curiously before turning to whispered conversations. Most of them about her.  
**  
**Then _they_ walked in, and Aktaya's eyes were drawn immediately. Toya had not changed a bit. Her own short cropped black hair had seemed unfitting, years ago, but now she had a small added layer of muscle to indicate her interest in sports and physical activities had not floundered. Tomboyish, the girl had a smirk about her that made her radiate a pleasant, if competitive, air. Saiporu, quite the opposite with her shy downcast eyes, seemed only a bit different. Her hair, in contrast to Toya's, was much longer, trailing almost down to her waist. But Aktaya could never forget that shy face. The cute freckles.

Takuma, the boyfriend she'd been kidnapped away from, had filled out well. Taller, and thinner, he'd lost the pudginess he'd once had. One of the few blondes in Japan even, if not just in the school, he stood out like a sore thumb. Aktaya knew that had her life gone differently, she would have been considered lucky to be with him now. The way his arm remained curled around cute little Saiporu's waist made her feel happy. It had probably been her disappearance that brought those two together.  
**  
**Their eyes strayed to her as well as they took their seats. Like in most classrooms, there were always extra and while she was pretty sure she'd taken one of the seats of a usual student, one of the jerks unless she missed her guess, there were still plenty others.

"Hello?" Came a sudden voice and Aktaya turned her head. Sakura. Of course. The class rep _would_ be the one to introduce herself. "Uhm... I am Sakura Toku. May I ask... ah... are you a new student?" She stated with a distinct lack of the arrogance that once permeated her voice. Strange. Aktaya would have thought that the increased beauty would have made the girl all the more prim and egotistical. Odd that it hadn't. Hell the girl seemed almost nervous!

Abruptly Aktaya remembered how intimidating she could be when her brow furrowed and she quickly brightened her eyes into a smile. "New? Oh, no. I'm an old one. Don't worry. I'm just sitting in for today."

The girl nodded as if that explained everything. Aktaya laughed. A little insinuation here, a little word play there and Sakura thought that she was an alumni! Heh heh. With annoying alacrity, Aktaya realized that she was attempting to play politics with a school girl. Gritting her teeth she thumped herself on the head mentally, and did the same to the derisive old geezers that made up the Communist Party of China. Or what was left of it anyway.

Ranma had done his best to find and appoint people who had the country's interest at heart. Appoint each competent person he found as well as he could to the party's head ever since he'd come into power. People who knew what they were doing, but the second he proposed something that had to do with seeking the help of another country, even his vaunted reputation wasn't enough to get the irritating council to agree. Even when they knew there was practically no other alternative!

All this flew through her head in moments as she stopped the girl. "Sorry. My name is Aktaya. I used to go to this school. You might remember me?"

"Aktaya... Aktay--!" The girl squeaked.

"Hello class!" Came the cheerful voice of a handsome man in his middle years. Aktaya's attention turned to him quickly, as did most of the rest of the class. "Please take your seats, and open your books to page..." Aktaya quickly grew bored, and turned back to the pink haired girl before her. Her face had gone pale as paper and her eyes were wide as she mechanically walked back to a seat near the front, unable to look away.

Aktaya held her fingers up in a victory symbol and smiled.

* * *

Disappointment was an irritating thing. Neither Toya nor Saiporu had shown much interest in the strange girl sitting in the back of the class. None of the notes passed on little pieces of paper were from them. Most of them from boys wondering who she was, or invites to join specific clubs.

A half an hour of waiting for either of her two friends to show interest in her and she grew fed up. Making a scene was something that had rubbed off from Ranma as well, and she thought she was pretty good at it. Standing in the middle of class she'd strode out through the shocked looks of the teacher and other students and let the door bang behind her as she made her way away.

How in hell had she _stood_ that as a child? It lasted forever and was so boring she thought she might eat her shoe! She remembered spending an entire _day_ listening to that drivel and she started to think maybe she was better off kidnapped and raped. At least it wasn't so god-awfully _boring!_

Stopping by the cafeteria, she casually stepped into the kitchen and stolen a sandwich before making her way out to the courtyard to sit and enjoy lunch while she waited. People were creatures of habit. It was unlikely that they had changed their usual eating spot. At the very least they would eat their lunch outside so she could find and talk to them then.

Without pause her feet had quickly guided her to the old tree where she, Saiporu and Toya had spent most of their lunches sitting beneath. Aktaya was proud to see that the tree had grown a bit in the years. Blossoms fell from it in the spring but they had already fallen this year. Summer heat made the tree's greenery look fresh and inviting; it's comforting shade seemed a boon to all who would rest beneath it.

Aktaya sat deciding to linger here for them, and the wait wasn't a long one. The bell rang, causing Aktaya's eyes to jerk to the clock tower four stories above. Noon on the dot. Hmm. It had been eleven thirty when she'd left the classroom. Maybe time literally _rushed_ to catch up with itself after dragging so long in those horrible horrible classrooms.

After a few moments of silence, plenty of time for the eyes of students already free to roam for one reason or another, to lose their interest in her, a deluge of more students seemed to flow out of the front doors. Young adults from fifteen to eighteen all holding lunchboxes or brown paper sacks or saran wrapped sandwiches, all spiderwebbed out of the great entrance to find their own spots on the schools large outer courtyard.

It was not long before her friends exited the building, but they had picked up a hitchhiker. The other face she vaguely recognized as Erimobu. A... well... a strange one. She'd once been very silent, sitting in the back of the class, and not really paying much attention to anyone. However, it seemed she'd grown more active in the years since Aktaya had been kidnapped, as she was yelling animatedly across the courtyard at a boy Aktaya didn't recognize.

All four of them were walking quite directly to the tree she now sat beneath. That was good at least. Saiporu was the first to notice her, and Aktaya chuckled as the girl tugged on Toya's sleeve. Before they could consider turning and eating somewhere else Aktaya raised a hand and waved them over, sitting on the trees steadily growing roots.

This place made her feel so... normal. So alive. And yet so out of place. Children, idly chatting, fantasizing about their futures. Enjoying life. That had been taken away from her, but then given back tenfold she supposed. How she'd dreamed of coming here, back in the Musk prison. Seeing their shocked faces when they realized she was alive.

More, that she was a mother...

Erimobu left the group to her relief, sauntering over to that boy she was yelling at. Aktaya didn't mind that, watching the three as they approached. Their faces were not filled with shock. Rather, curiosity. She had changed too much. They... did not recognize her. That hurt somehow, though she knew it shouldn't.

"Hello, miss?" Saiporu ventured timidly as always. Sweet little Saiporu. Aktaya noticed the girl's eyes lingering worriedly on her eyepatch and the scar's filtering out from beneath it. "You... were in class this morning. Uhm... what...?"

"Hiya!" Aktaya interrupted with an enthusiastic laugh. "How have you guys been?"

She could tell her voice triggered something in them. Not enough though. "Uh... Do we know you?" Takuma was never very subtle. It only made her laugh all the more. She couldn't feel too much resentment towards them for not recognizing her. After all she barely recognized _herself_!

"Yeah. You used to a couple years ago. Try to picture me with really long hair. Uhm... throw a bow in it too. Oh. Get rid of the eyepatch and scars of course." She made of show of glancing over herself. "Uh... knock my boobs down a cup size too. See what you come up with." Aktaya petitioned them with a giggle. God this place was making her feel so childish!

A sudden thud echoed and Aktaya turned to see Toya sitting on the ground, having fallen quite unceremoniously. She was staring at her in shock. Hah! One facet of Aktaya's personality mentally handed another fifty bucks. One of them _did_ recognize her! It took prodding but at least she didn't have to _say _who she was!

_"Aktaya!" _The girl exclaimed in amazed wonder. There wasn't even a hint of a question in the girl's adoring-- adoring? --voice. That made Aktaya feel a bit warmer than usual. Strange though. Toya's tone seemed almost _reverent, _and that made her feel downright giddy...!

...Right up until the girl bowled her over with a hug that sent them both sprawling to the ground.

"You're alive! You're really... You..."

Aktaya blinked. Was the girl... sobbing? She knew she'd been a good friend but... wow. Her arms unconsciously cradled the other girl, welcoming the hug. "Yeah. It's me. I finally made it back." She looked up to find Saiporu kneeling above her and Takuma standing behind her.

"H-how!? Where have you been!" The tomboyish girl suddenly exclaimed. Wrenching herself away from the embrace, Toya stared down at Aktaya in worry. "What happened to your _eye!"_

Aktaya poked the eyepatch into the empty space that once held her eye as she attempted to sit up, her other hand idly fingering her dagger just in case. It wasn't good to ever compromise your mobility. Ever.

"Heh. It's a long story. You'll never believe the half of what I've--!"

Without warning a lawn sprinkler erupted, blasting cold water over all of them. Had Aktaya not been covered by Toya she thought it was possible that she could have withdrawn her broadsword in time to block the spray from drenching herself at least. She'd gotten very good at that.

As it was however...

"Wh... what... the...?"

Toya jerked. Being sprayed with water generally shocked most people, and she was no exception. Still, she was a bit more used to it than most, being somewhat tomboyish. Rarely, but occasionally she still managed to find the time to go prowling out by creeks and rivers on camping expeditions. Ever since Aktaya had... gone... those trips had shortened to a trickle.

Toya was no stranger to being wet. The jerk that shivered through her system did not come from the water.

Tears of joy and shock drying on her eyes from the realization that her long dead friend had truly returned from the grave had made her heart swell. Recognition in its sweetest form had swept over her. Even the scars, the added height, the Chinese dregs, and the missing eye did not dissuade the image that had overlayed Aktaya's form. Her freckles were still there. Her smile. Her easy clumsiness. It was... like... she couldn't describe it. Like attending the girl's funeral, _backwards!_ Emotion had swept over her and she'd rushed the girl, hugging her to be sure she was truly real.

That had caused a shock of its own sort, as had the sprinkler bursting. But they had also not been the cause of her sudden jerk.

The arms wrapped around her, moments ago, so light and welcoming. So warmingly her best friend of old had... _changed._ The shock came from her friend's embrace growing... broader. The chest she'd been lying on top of was suddenly as hard as stone. The arms, once friendly and as slim as her own, grew warm and surrounding. Rising slowly from the other girl's-- girl's? --embrace, she found not a girl.

No.

A boy held her.

Her jaw slowly grew lax until it hung wide. "Wh-what...?"

"Uh... Hiya. Aktaya Sovi. Sorry bout' this." Came a deep tone, suited to neither the age nor gender the boy should have been.

For a sparse moment, grief took Toya. Unparalleled grief. It _wasn't_ Aktaya. Just some stupid ass of a boy playing a prank. A horrible... horrible... prank. But, it couldn't be... could it? She didn't really comprehend the words. She saw the face. The freckles were still there. The black eyepatch. The strange Chinese clothes which fit the boy curiously better then they had a moment ago. She had been hugging a girl. Her friend. Aktaya. The girl had definitely _been_ a girl. There had been a... bounce when she'd hugged her! Hell even the transparent overlay of the girl she once knew still hovered over the boy holding her. So that could only mean she had actually...

_Changed into...!?_

Her eyes rolled up in their sockets as her head made a dull thud on the boy's chest, punctuating her loss of consciousness.

"Y-you're... who are you!?" Came a shocked exclamation from Saiporu. Aktaya could only give a bitter laugh as he stared up, watching the girl holding almost unconsciously onto Takuma. "Y-you jackass!"

Aktaya blinked. Hard. Did Saiporu just call him a jackass? Why? Wow... things _had _changed.

Giving a labored sigh, Aktaya rose, gently cradling Toya's unconscious form, rolling her around until she could lay the girl gently next to the tree. "I'm really sorry. I... I _AM_ Aktaya. I swear to you... this... this is a curse. My cursed form."

"I don't believe you, you utter _asshole! _You're horrible! Just because Toya's a little different you... _You!_" The girl burst with sudden vehemence that took Aktaya aback. What had she done...?

But Aktaya recovered quickly.

"Of course you don't." Aktaya sighed. "Let me tell you a story. Come on. Sit down. Eat your lunch and listen. She'll wake up pretty soon I'm sure." Aktaya commanded, his tone growing short as impatience began to rear its head. This was _not_ how he'd envisioned this meeting going. His eyes trailed to Takuma, and was surprised to find the rage in Saiporu's eyes mirrored in the young man's own. Despite that, Aktaya was not surprised to find both of them had sat almost instantly at his command.

"I know you don't believe... but hear me out. Please?" He said, trying to ease the frustration out of his voice. Withdrawing a thermos from pretty much nowhere and pouring it over his head, he listened to the gasp that followed in stereo as his form shifted back to female.

Then she started. "I'm skipping a lot, but I guess this is where the story really starts. It was probably..."

**"...about a year and seven months ago."**

* * *

"Hah hah! It never gets old!" Sam Etchins exclaimed excitedly. It was about the only thing he could be excited about here. So much training. Years of it. Ages of years, and as it turns out when he finally made it, when he finally took that terrifying leap into the sky...

...Space was boring.

The joy of weightlessness wore off annoyingly quickly despite his upbeat words as he floated outside. The shuttle was moving at a good clip but it was hard to tell. Impossible really since friction wasn't holding him back. The only reason he could even tell he was moving was the tug on the strong cord tying him to the satellite. It had been almost a month since he'd first launched and he had to admit that boredom was truly getting to him. He wanted to go home and see his family. Little Laura, his sister, was turning seventeen soon. His mother had died a few years ago, and he couldn't imagine his father was having an easy time of it. The man was raising a seventeen year old girl on his own, after all. Sam would rather take the Astronaut training all over again than try that.

But unfortunately there were still another two months left until he could return.

He gave a sigh, pressing the small button on his propulsion pack to move a short ways up the side of the spacecraft. Stopping, he leaned against the side of the craft and stared. The earth. It gleamed below him, the most massive waterglobe in existence, every detail shining with a magnificence that still left him gaping in awe. Every lap around he saw new things. New islands that he'd missed behind clouds or thunderstorms, now freed and visible to his eye.

And he supposed that that never grew old. Even if it did become rather similar to watching the scenery fly by outside a car window after a time. He sometimes felt, in a small way, like some sort of god. Able to reach out and... just... poke it. He was above everything. Master of it all.

He hovered over China now. Ah China. He'd heard something about the country just before launching. Something about one of their major military leaders just up and disappearing. He'd been an important man, and someone of note to the Government over there. But, like most, Sam cared little for things happening on the other side of the world. And now it seemed even less important. Earth in its entirety, a blue bauble below him was little more than his waterglobe.

At that moment, his eye caught something. In the western edges of China, northerly, and deep within the mountains, a light flickered. Which was very strange. One light never flickered. At night continents lit up where there were many thousands of lights. Cities became visible, but only the most massive. The only way a single light could be seen from so high was... if it... were...

His eyes had only a second to jerk wide in wonder before that yellow light pulsed, morphing into a ray and rushing up to meet him. A massive cylindrical tube blasting up from the earth, it washed over him. For a single moment his entire world sparkled in abject wonder, and his eyes lit in amazement. All space around him, black as night, became a shimmering golden sea. Washing over him, wisps of the golden energy seemed to swirl around him as the ray clearcoated all of space in gold as far as he could see. Then, it consumed him. There was no pain. Just light. And then nothing.

When the light faded, the _Capelto 13 U.S. Space Satellite, _all crew, and Sam Etchins, did not exist.

* * *

Tsingtao let a small smile cross his face as the Tower of Leira darkened once more. Another of the world's eyes destroyed. He wouldn't have other countries preventing his succession. Now while China's current leaders squabbled with other countries over the weapons they were supposedly creating, he could move without worry. That was enough to cause another smile. Rare... the memory of his dead son weighed heavily on him these days.

He was a man though. More than a man. Considering his gift. Six hundred twenty three years he had lived. Eighteen years since Herb's mother had passed. Eighteen years of planning was finally coming to fruition. And those years had given him knowledge and patience. He was no fool. He knew that, despite his age, his seemingly endless youth inherited from his gift, he knew he was not indestructible. Somewhere, there was always someone stronger.

Precious years had been spent eliminating them, or drawing them into his fold. And building his army...

The ancient Samurai held Dragonsbane. The sword that could slay him with a touch of even its scabbard. He had spent _ages_ working those fools out of society. Now the sword lay in his treasury, an ancient relic, it's history and it's magic forgotten to all but him.

The monk, Effey. Tibet held strong sorcerers. China held master magicians who could charm animals and rain fire from the skies. The Amazon's and their witch doctors, and the strongest of their ki spinners could make cities tremble with their power. The Musk, he knew, could and would make this continent shake before they were through with their conquering. But the monk, Effey...

He could have called the seas to _swallow_ continents. He could whisper, and turn the very air to poison. He could laugh, and take the rage of an army that covered the entire land, put it in his pocket and smile while he set the joy-filled legion aflame. Effey was the name that struck terror into the hearts of all, only a mere three hundred years ago. For all his power, he could not face age. And he died, as all humans did.

But people such as Effey had made Tsingtao wise. Humanity was a race filled with surprises. Which was why, once he had conquered his lands, he would never lose his edge. He would never grow comfortable on the throne he sought to take. No. He would be ready... he would be wary of any who sought to usurp him. Any who had the strength.

Saffron of the Phoenix was one who could be such someday. Luckily the phoenix god wasn't in his prime. That had been the key that had set everything in motion. Tsingtao hadn't been able to begin his preparations until the phoenix god died and was reborn. Eighteen years ago. Curious that the phoenix god should die in the same year as Herb's mother, but a coincidence. Quickly, he had inserted himself into the realms of the phoenix. Without their god in full form, which he did not gain until eight years ago, the phoenix were helpless to his whims. And now they found themselves irrevocably tied to him and his plans to take China. The phoenix lord grew under him, raised by him, a fifth son. The phoenix people hated it, but what could they do? Challenge him? Hah. Without their god, they would fall like worms under his gaze.

To the best of his knowledge in China, only Saffron could stand against him... and what son would stand against his father? No. Saffron grew to call him father. Grew to trust him. Trust him over all others. Over that pathetic mother-bird of his. What was her name? Kii... something...? Ah well. Watching him subdue her had been a pure delight.

Slowly, the bird boy had begun to come around to his way. The Musk way. By the God of Time, how he had enjoyed the insurrection! The phoenix civil war had been magnificent. Men enslaved their female companions, and the phoenix became another race of the Musk in all but name, their women just as pitiful as all were. All under the orders of the adolescent phoenix god. Oh, but how things change with the passing of time!

Su Li Din. The strongest of the Amazons was also falling to that fatal mortal weakness. Age was taking her. He had heard that the old woman had battled his son Mace. His son had lived. That was more than enough to prove that the woman was no longer in her prime. No longer a match for him.

Only three others peaked his concern. The first was the girl. The slave girl Ruby. It was not her strength that worried him. No. It was a resolve to crush iron and splinter steel. Before her, none had _truly_ withstood his son Borage's tortures. Some had defied past that point, but even then, they would have broken if only given more time. But Ruby had shown no signs of breaking under physical torture. Marjoram had come close, he was sure, but Marjoram had never taken more than a week to break any prisoner, with his potions and concoctions.

Resolve like that would strive for the power to match it. The power to bring him down.

Which is why he hoped Ruby had fled fast, to protect the Musk boy growing within her. His grandson to be sure, but women were strange like that.

The second was the Seven Lucky Gods. They were powerful in their own right of course, but the seven of them, and their light blasted leader Kirin held a power that even they did not know they possessed. Fortunately he'd seen to it that they had been hampered, when he'd killed Kirin's father some years ago. Kirin possessed a scroll for a recipe for simple pickled vegetables. Simple... yet somehow when made in conjuncture to the magic of that scroll those pickled vegetables could create a warrior with power unmatched in this age.

By any save him...

To the best of his knowledge the scroll was completed yet the Lucky Gods did not know the power they possessed. That had been his doing, as he had killed Kirin's father. A long and arduous battle that had lasted for _days_. But the man had died when Kirin was only a boy, too young to remember. He had little fear of that threat coming again, but he kept watch on the self proclaimed Gods... just in case.

His final enemy, he was ready for. Technology. It was the strongest power mankind had possessed since Effey had walked the earth. Technology pooled the powers of men's minds, and it held the throne he sought. Technology held the lands they called China now. But it would not soon. It had grown lax in its place... the great cities of the modern world were defenseless, and unprepared for war to descend upon them.

And that would be their undoing.

He would reclaim what had been the lands of his people. Al'ket de'Chinasa. The Land the Sky Reaches For. The men of this day had perverted it into the bastardization, China. It irritated, him but he did have to admit it rolled off the tongue much easier. Either way, it had belonged to his ancestors, and he would reclaim it all. He would make the dirt that controlled it now remember why they once feared the sky!

He would make his father see that he had been _right!_ He would...

...And no one would stand in his way.

* * *

Chell was shocked to see Ruby awake, but again she supposed she shouldn't be. She was Ruby. It was just like her to wake on the eve of a great battle. And the one today would probably have no equal until the Musk attack Joketsuzoku. Now the redhead stood down in the pits behind the walls. Ready to do what she could. Honestly, Chell had been surprised that Ruby had been so glad to become a medic. A warrior like her, stronger than any, in will if not in power, choosing to degrade herself and be just a simple healer?

But Chell quickly overcame the prejudice her nation felt against healers. Ruby knew where she could help. She _knew_ that was the only way she could truly be of use in this war. Opportunity had been her greatest ally back in the Musk kennels. That had been what had made her so strong. But standing out on the battlefield, she would be as a child fighting in the Schomics. No. The battlefield would not be a place for her save for dragging the wounded away.

Chell was far more surprised at the presence of Aktaya here on this day. She was not in the city, instead residing with the ambush placed in the surrounding forest. Still, the girl had changed drastically from the beaten schoolgirl she had once been. She looked... _menacing_ now. She wasn't, by any means. Her ki had only just filtered around the fringes of that one manacle she wore. But it would not be long. She trained madly, spending hours swinging that fiendish looking Musk sword, carting symbolism with her wherever she went. The leather armor, picked up from a now dead Amazon fit her almost perfectly, while the sword made her look either deadly or foolish. Foolish because of its massive size, deadly because she now lobbed the thing single handed. When had that happened?

Chell was saddened by the two. She'd hardly managed to spend any time with them since their miraculous escape, but she could not really afford to. Ruby would be no help in rescuing her daughter, and nor would Aktaya. So her attention had turned to the elders.

She only wore one manacle. But in her foolishness she'd given up pushing at the manacle long ago when she had been imprisoned. If only she'd tried... if only her hopelessness had not overcome her. Then maybe she would have escaped years ago. In _days_ after her escape, she managed to grasp her ki again. In weeks she was as strong as she could ever remember being. Years of stagnation behind the manacle Clail, she'd named it, had made her ki fester as if waiting to be released. Now she was an Amazon again. Finally... she was Sage the slave no more. _Now... _only now was she truly free.

But what was freedom when death loomed overhead like a hammer?

Ruby would probably scorn her for such a thought. Freedom was _everything_ to Ruby. For some reason. The girl seemed to be... _alive_ now more than ever. Every time she forayed back into the battlefield, running miles beyond her limit and bringing back more fighters at once than most medics could bring in five runs, she took on this excited look. As if facing a new challenge. Chell didn't even think the red-head was aware of it. But that excitement made Chell's loyalty to the girl grow all the more. She was... not like other women. She was made of something stronger. Something... something... incredible. That was all she could describe her as.

Chell turned her eye to the battlefield. Kinagoda lay in a valley. Once, before the city had been built it had been covered completely in forest ground but that had been long ago. Now surrounding the inner city stood a ring-like palisade of high spiked tree trunks jutting out in every direction. Almost three miles of fiendish wall ringed the inner city, but outside lay a giant plain. Her eyes were better than an eagle's, but at the far end of the great expanse of ground she could only make out the rise where the mountains began through the dense morning mist. Not long ago, women had lived and farmed the rich soil surrounding the city, but now everyone who could had moved into the walls, or fled to Joketsuzoku weeks ago.

Those plains looked so barren and cold compared to the lively ring of farms and life that she had once looked over. Almost a second city, she remembered houses and men lined the hundreds of dirt roads that had once decorated the outside of Kinagoda, stretching to the line of trees high on the surrounding mountains and beyond to the outer farmers who braved the dense wilds. Now the drums of war had padded the once vibrant grass and plowland into its own dirt and dust. The surrounding land, once green and full of life was now indiscernible from the dirt roads that once spiderwebbed out from the city's heart. Houses, or the charred remains of houses, were all that was left of the outer city.

That and the bodies of the dead.

But that was still better than how they would look after today.

Men would die in the hundreds before they even reached the wall, the dead would reach thousands before it was breached. But it would be. Chell could already tell. The numbers were almost insurmountable. She was the granddaughter of Cologne. Even if five years had passed since she had used the knowledge, she had been trained in the arts of war since her birth. Trained in battle, and she would have gone on to become a battlemaster, and one day, an elder. She still dreamed of doing so, but child-bearing always hampered ones rise in the Amazon Council. And she'd had two now. Almost nineteen years ago now her first child had been born.

News from Joketsuzoku was in short supply but from what Chell had shaken out of elders and other amazons alike, her daughter Xian Pu was in Japan of all places. Chasing after some boy who had bested her in combat! What a surprise that was! Xian Pu had been one of the greatest fighters of her age, far surpassing what Chell had been capable of in her own youth.

Now she didn't know if she would ever see the lavender haired girl again. Grown she was though, and long out of her care. Illi was her concern. She _would_ live through this day. She _would... _That was all there was to it.

Her eyes turned to the sun, rising to signal the end of dawn. The Musk began to filter from the trees even as she watched, high on the sides of the mountains surrounding her village. Like wraiths they began to descend through the mist before her eyes; a swarm of ants filtering from the massive trunks of forest beyond. At first it seemed many with the first row descending into view, but as more lines of men filtered through many became millions. Though she knew the number came nowhere close to that great, the width of men blanketed the entire northern horizon. In her mind she knew they were not so great. She knew it... Still, her heart quivered in fear and her hands grew sweaty on her bow.

She glanced to her left. A platoon of thirty archers surrounded her, and on each side an elder stood. Beyond the elder another thirty archers, and another elder, continuing on to circle the entirety of the wall. Arrows would kill hundreds if not thousands today. But the magic of the elders would destroy far more. Few had seen the true strength the elders. Goddess knew she never had save for the small wonders Cologne had preformed for her. But those who had seen, had told stories.

_'Liken unto the goddess herself, an elder of the Amazons can lay waste to the land and heal it back from the fringes of death. One as easily as the other._'

...Or so the legends said.

Chell had always been skeptical. She glanced over to the elder on her left and found Eugia standing stalwartly on one of the turrets. Her deep black hair shimmering with a youth that belied the woman's true age, she stood above and beyond the archers along with the other elders. Each stood atop their own turret; their own tower poised above even the walls where they could see and best use the colossal power each woman contained. Eugia herself stood alone in a regal way that seemed foreign to Chell. A relatively young elder at a mere ninety some odd years, Eugia had always been one of the kindest people Chell had ever known. Originating from Joketsuzoku, the dark haired woman had moved to Kinagoda before Chell had been abducted, seeking the peace of more rural town. Always the first to offer a smile, the first to help a child up from a fall, she had always felt like a favorite aunt to Chell.

Now she radiated a cold intensity that made Chell ill to her stomach. Every elder, each of the ninety seven shimmered like beacons of power making Chell feel terribly small. Eugia was to kindness as water was to wet. That look of grim determination did not suit her face. The glowing blue aura of her ki, the emotion of cold calculation fit her even worse, and a wave of sadness crept over Chell, that was quickly washed away as she realized that the line of men descending from the mountains had still not stopped appearing.

'Fool.' She chided herself. _'I should be focusing.' _

The men had descended the slope of the mountain, their numbers exceeding that of any force Chell had ever seen. Her fingers trembled at the sheer amount of them. Double, even triple Kinagoda's population might not even describe it, and still the men poured forth from the line of trees like an avalanche.

...Men who sought to imprison her again. No. Men who sought the death of her and every person she had ever known.

Anger bubbled in her heart, but anger was not enough to describe it. Rage. She remembered her weakness. She remembered her cowardice all too well. Every second of every day she spent fighting to keep herself from burbling in fear. Or worse, finding the nearest musk and begging for forgiveness. Begging for that collar back. She feared that may plague her for the rest of her days. But she would never give in to it. Not ever. And these words fueled the inner rage that served as her wall, surrounding her fear and blotting it out.

A glare on her eyes, she focused. The army began its steady advance.

All around her swirling lights of each elder began to coalesce...

_"I'm going to live." _She told herself firmly. _"I'm going to live... for my daughters."_

"Sisters!" Came a sudden and massive booming female voice. "We have always been plagued by war! We have always fought for our small piece of this world. For three thousand years we have lived and survived! For three thousand years our culture has flourished! Again, war comes... Again the trumpets of battle sound... How many countless battles have we Amazons fought? How many? Can any hope to count? How many enemies have lain dead at our feet!? The numbers _are_ countless! As countless as our victories!" It echoed across the valley, loud and strong enough to be heard by the horde of men in the distance. Chell recognized the voice. Every Amazon did. None couldn't hear it and not know the sound of the strongest Amazon in living memory.

Su Li Din.

In the distance shouts of men, and the sounds of anger bellowed like a barely audible thrum. A rumbling began to fill ground, the sound of thousands of feed running in unison. The thundering pulse of red ki, fueled by the army's own Ki wielders began to saturate the air. The army was dashing fueled by the spurs of shouted orders growing louder by the second.

"Death comes to us all..." The strongest of the elders continued, her words trailing dimly as if in regret. "Slow for some, and swift for others, but it comes all the same. Fear not! _Falter_ not! Life is nothing more than a swift dream. All of us must wake someday. But that day is not today! The Amazons will sleep on! Our dream will last until the stars fall from the sky and the Earth swims beneath the seas!"

A roar of cheers arose from all around. Swimming in Chell's ears, lifting her, and buffeting her spirits higher than she could have thought possible. She cheered along, agreeing in a slowly growing thirst for the taste of battle, the swing of the passionate speech swaying her resolve into a firmness she'd never before known.

Battle came. Life came. Life was a dream that she was not meant to wake from today. That none here were meant to wake from. Not today.

She looked, but Su Li Din resided on a far turret, high above her. She couldn't see the woman, but she could tell where she was. Shining atop the foremast, the tallest of the turrets, Su Li Din braved the onslaught that would surely fall upon her. Her voice echoed and energy pulsed in tune with it.

"For the Amazons! For the Goddess!" Came the elder's final cry, booming with such force that Chell was almost sure the army slowed its mad dash for the walls. Echoes of the cheer rose from every Amazon around her meshing in to wild roar.  
_  
"For the Goddess!"  
"Goddess Shines!"  
"Forward the Dream of the Amazons!"  
"For the Goddess!"_

"Now! The drums of war pound in our ears, as they have before! As they will again! Burn! Turn your will, my sisters, into a hammer that can crush any foe!" The elder screamed. As if to punctuate her speech's end, the air began to crackle, the sounds of popping ashes filling space around the tower. And a long high pitched note blared over every sound. A whistle. Even as the sound filled Chell with hope, it sent a chill through her bones. Din's Fire Whistle. Dreaded by Amazons and Musk alike. Lighting began to dance around the outside of the wooden tower, and without warning, a beam of red blasted forth across the length of the land.

Chell along with everyone else watched in mute horror the ground erupted into an explosion, throwing men into the air, and tearing them to shreds. In the distance the screams echoed as the arcing red beam began to trace across the front line of men, leaving molten ground, dead men, and a wall of fire and uneven earth in its wake.

As if taking the blast as a queue, the other elders began. A blue ray, cold calm destruction. Lighter blue, the air of confident certainty. A green. Depression, the power of failing hope. A yellow. The color of thrill. Of passion, and the strength of defending it. But above all red. Ki swirled, each ray raining death down upon the hordes of the musk. Ranged ki at its strongest, the lines of men exploded before Chell's eyes. A white beam, ki charged by emotionless cold logic surged through, a foot in diameter as it arched across the land exploded into the ground.

She looked to Eugia, and found the woman glowing a pale unearthly blue. She stretched her hands forward, palms facing towards the surge of men, and the blue of her aura seemed to seep into a ball in front of her outstretched hands. Wider the thing formed, growing, swelling into a massive force of ki. Chell's jaw dropped as the massive ball erupted. Bullets of ki, thousands, hundreds of thousands began spewing out, crackling with the sounds of lasers, firing a barrage of finger-sized ki bolts into the men below.

Two elders to her right she saw Yusengne. One of the oldest, and a feared woman besides. The woman was a Necrodancer. One who weaved the ki of the dark. Her own rays of black lanced into the ground far below, great black arcs whirling the dirt affront the horde, and skeletons of long dead warriors rose from their graves to slice at the still advancing men with scythes and scimitars before being overrun and replaced by still more black beams.

Everywhere. Everywhere the power of the Amazons was displayed. The awesome power of the elders, docile might always hidden in plain sight behind their aged visages now splayed across the sky. Every color one could imagine. Arcing rays that exploded. Burning fireballs of light. Beams that burned and scorched the flesh. Swirling lights of lime greens and purples, the colors of irritation and confusion disoriented the army. But always the light of red anger pounded at them.

Fantastic... awe held her in its grip as she watched.

But it still wasn't enough. For every man scorched by the death rendering rays of ki, more piled over their fallen comrades spurred on by a hate that only grew as their allies fell. Closer they grew. Half way between the plains and the mountains the line of advancing men grew ever closer. An endless torrent, a wave, a tsunami of raw anger, programmed into the race itself from birth.

_"Down with the Amazon scum!"  
"Pull them down!"  
"The towers! Destroy the towers!"  
"Let us show the witches the might of the Musk!"_

War cries of men standing in the distance.

Without warning a tremor wracked the wall she stood on, and she scrambled for a hold as the wall itself shook. Hands surrounding her latched on to her shoulder's in a desperate bid to keep upright, even as she did the same to her sisters. Quickly, her balance restored, she turned to look back down at the battle below her.

Beams were no longer one sided. For every blaze of ki an Amazon elder summoned, two returned from men glowing in the distance. Interspersed seemingly randomly among the great mass of soldiers, the men stood out blazing against the morning's light. If the sky had been covered in a rainbow before, it now rained red. Ki blasts wracked the walls, and slammed into barriers of force erected by the incredible power of the elders. Chell felt as if she were a mere ant herself. What could she do, if the elders could not stop this...? Why was she here? Surrender... she had to!

"No..." She told herself, even as the wall shook again with another deep impact.

She turned her eyes back to the men only to find a massive ball of flames descending upon her. Only a moment to realize that her life was truly at an end, hardly even the time to let out a scream, amazement filled her as the ball slammed into a shimmering transparent barrier and dissipated.

"First rank, draw!" Came a disoriented shout and Chell's hands flexed automatically around her bow, her eyes focusing on a target as the men came into vision in bloody, gory detail. She fitted an arrow to the string and drew the bow back, the arrow's fletching brushing her cheek as she pulled. Through Clail, her manacle, she embraced her own ki. Power she'd missed for so long had finally been restored to her; she would use this gift. She _would!_ What had seemed so difficult only a few weeks before now seemed no more trying than running her hand through water. Her ki flowed through her fingers. Touching the bow, the arrow, and most importantly the string. All of this in time with the ten sisters to her left and right, and all those among the first rank of archers as she was.

"Loose!" Commanded the first archer, Ukiira. A stern woman with uncanny light brown hair, the woman had no equal when it came to the bow and arrow. And together with the first commander and hundreds of others, arrows each glittering with their own insignia blanketed the sky in a sea of sparkling lights before descending in a hail of death. Screams erupted from the men, but they were no more than a speck. More arrows bounced off of ki hardened skin or armor than found any flesh.

"Second rank, Loose!"

Another great hail. Men fell by the tens, maybe even the hundreds, but there were just too many! The second barrage of arrows sunk into the deluge of men, many melting in the crossfire of blazing blasts of ki. Chell readied another arrow as fast as she could remove one from her quiver and managed to draw just as the order came again.

Closer! They drew closer by the moment! They would reach the gates!

"First rank, Loose!"

The drawstring snapped, and skinned her inner arm with a sharp _twang_. Shock lasted only seconds as she cursed her stupidity. This was _not_ the time to let her anxiety get the best of her!

In the distance, men finally stopped pouring forth from the line of trees. The entire plain was a sea of men. No. It was a maelstrom of rage and emotions and a battle for domination that could never be described. A battle whose likeness would be sung for a thousand years. Awe filled her almost enough to equal the dread that crept through her. Every minute, every arrow she launched, that great horde came closer to the wall.

For a moment her eyes turned back to the soldiers standing in the squares behind the wall.

Only a moment, but the girl's red hair stood out brighter than even the beacons of ki before her. Her hands moved on their own drawing an arrow as she watched the redhead. She was staring up at the walls, probably wondering what was going on on the other side. Watching the elders, not in awe, but in grim determination. As always with Ruby.

Chell offered a silent prayer that the goddess protect the redhead before she turned, found another target and loosed.

They had to win.

They had to...

* * *

Aktaya stood ready, her sword slung high over her shoulder. In the forest far to the west and north of Kinagoda she stood, watching from the side of the mountains. Her brow was itchy and her palms trailed with sweat. The battle was not going well. From her vantage she could see it all. Amazement had taken her of course, but she'd quickly recovered. She would be no use if she were standing in awe. The elders were at work. Their power was incredible. But the numbers were insurmountable.

She knew the plan, as all with her did. She glanced forward to see Jai Alai standing just as poised as always. The woman still had the three manacles on her arms and leg. As an elder it had not been much of a surprise that the old woman could use her ki already. The amount of it she could use was probably about even with Aktaya, who had touched her own not long ago. The elder had been given a place of honor in this ambush, but not one of command. Power seemed to be the deciding factor in Amazon ranking.

The old woman accepted that though, standing at the head of Aktaya's platoon. A pincer attack was planned. Almost five hundred Amazon's placed on the east and west sides of the village far above in the forests. They had gotten here with the tunnels, and if necessary, planned to return to the city to protect it, should it fall too quickly.

Aktaya tried to muster her courage. The force below stretched and covered the entire valley. Explosions rocked the plains. And she was going to foray into that. Her mission: Target and destroy those who could attack the city from afar. The Musk Elders. Their job was to find them and subdue them.

Determination strong enough to rival Ruby's gave her the strength to hold her poise.

"All is going as planned." Came a quiet voice. Elder Soduin. The leader of the west assault.

Suddenly, a great blue flair lit up, visible through the canopy of trees, shining over the city. A beacon. A signal.

"We advance."

Slowly at first, Aktaya began to walk. Surrounded on all sides by women, she felt strangely comfortable. Some holding swords, some axes. Some spears, and weapons called bonbori. Scimitars and daggers. She had one of those. Some even held no weapon, depending on their ability to fight barehanded, as Ruby surely would have done. Five hundred women to ambush thousands... Somehow she felt at peace with her probable death. She didn't want to die. But this was where she'd been led. Her strength was small, but she was no longer useless. She was a fighter, in a war, that had a cause.

Women were not slaves. Were not toys. They weren't trophies, and they weren't dogs to be breed. Any who believed otherwise would face her blade, and the wrath of the Amazons. A society she felt she belonged to, even after only a few short weeks.

She turned to her right. Edua. A friend she had only known for an hour. A sister. On her left ran Metsu. A sparring partner, but the girl had become a fast friend as well, taking to Tir quickly. Metsu had been fighting teacher. Young at only twenty three, the girl was a master with her daggers, but her true passion was passing on her gifts. Now, she was here to defend her home. Another sister. Even those she didn't know at all, those she'd never spoken with Aktaya felt kinship to them. They were hers, and she was theirs. She would protect them, as they would her.

"Are you ready for this, Metsu?" Aktaya asked, with a confidence she could only attribute to Ruby's influence on her.

The girl beamed back, flashing her daggers, a feral grin on her eyes as she ran. "Of course." Her words were quick and lighthearted but her tone quickly grew somber. "They come to hurt the young ones..." She stated with hatred, turning to glare through the trees down to the horde below. "That is more than enough reason for them to die. I am ready."

Their advance became a run and the trees thinned as the mountainous slope began to ease into the valley. Speed picked up, along with her visibility. Far on her left, and below her she could see the gates of the city, a great wooden barricade surrounded by men. A dull crimson light in front of the gate seemed to pulse in time with a blue glow coming from the other side. From this distance she could barely make out men throwing their ki attacks at the walls.

"You watch my back, I'll watch yours." Aktaya stated with a nod.

For a moment, the woman looked confused. Then she shook her head with a laugh. "Hah. You outsiders... Your heart is noble, but you should learn our ways. I would protect you as best I could even if you did not ask, and expect the same of you. Even if I did not know you. It is unspoken among us."

Aktaya blushed faintly. But nodded. "I will."

From the walls and the gate, men stretched all across the valley. A tsunami of men that had crashed down from the north, and now was slowly filtering out into the wide ring of plains surrounding Kinagoda. Adrenaline rushed through her as she looked ahead. Her fingers grew tight around the haft of her giant broadsword. Finally they burst free of the trees and sunlight fell on her blazing despite the crispness of autumn. The smell of cinder and ashes washed over her but she didn't slow.

Running for all she was worth, A cry came to her lips and an echo rose from her sisters. Watching the shocked faces of men as they turned to find a horde of women stampeding down the side of the mountain. Rage in their eyes and death on their fingertips, Aktaya felt her throat run dry as she drew closer and closer to battle. Seemingly in slow motion, the men readied themselves. Not quickly enough. Her feet flew, her legs burning with the effort of keeping up with her sisters. Still she persevered and finally the torrent Amazons still ahead of her slammed into the lines of Musk.

Quickly she began to meld her ki. Such a new wondrous feeling, molding her ki into place, sliding it through her limbs and feeling the well of strength bubble with her. She channeled her hatred for the Musk. Her love for her daughter. Every emotion she had, and she found a target. Deep auburn hair that was slowly graying with age, he was shirtless save for a vest. Paying her no heed, he glowed with light, preparing to send a beam flying at the wall in the distance. Surrounded by a group of probably fifteen men she advanced, finding Amazon's already deeply engaged in combat.

She plowed through them, Metsu and Edua still at her side.

Her blade flashed, and satisfaction came from watching it slice through the abdomen of one of the nameless Musk soldiers protecting her target. Instinctively, she ducked, suddenly finding herself alone amidst hundreds of one on one battles. Feeling the air whisk above her, barely dodging the axe that almost cleaved her in two she leg swept the attacker without mercy. Withdrawing her side dagger, she stabbed downward. Infusing the blade with ki, pushing past her manacle she sunk the blade into the man's chest. Turning she stared. Her target stood out like a beacon, and all around her battle raged.

Abruptly an explosion rocked her, but she leapt away, wrenching her dagger out of the dying Musk's chest as she went. Turning, she found a small crater where the man, and several others had been. Guilt welled, but it was manageable this time. This time, she was fighting for something. This time...

Her eyes found her target again. Metsu was engaged in battle with three Musk all desperately trying to protect the man, and themselves from her vicious flashing daggers. Anger spiked and ki flowed. Rising, she dashed through the intervening ground, broadsword held high in one hand. Her muscles raged as she brought the great blade down on one of those three, simultaneously blocking another new attacker's slim rapier with her dagger.

The scream and the sickening sound of metal carving through bone flittered through her ears as she turned to her new opponent, her dagger entwine with his blade.

Her arms screamed with the effort, but she wrenched the heavy broadsword from its place, lodged in the Musk soldier's head and barely brought its point down to defend against the lightning like blade of a young green haired Musk boy. Barely older than her, he was her enemy. But not her target. Her goal, the ambush's entire goal, was to wipe out those who could use ki to the extent that they could fire long ranged attacks. More simply, take out the Musk elders.

The endless rabble of grunts was impressive, but without their ki wielding superiors, they would be mincemeat under the elder's gaze.

A small well of ki formed in her hand. And light flashed, blinding the boy. Only a moment, but it was enough. She turned and took aim. Her dagger whizzed across the battlefield and sunk into her target's neck. The glow around the older man drained away, flicking in its dull red. She watched him gurgle clutching his throat, but had no time for the small bolt of guilt that shook her.

Aktaya turned back to the boy, already wheezing with the effort of using so much of her ki so quickly. She wouldn't be able to use much more... she was sure. She'd have to go back to the forest to recover... Damn. She was only on the very outskirts of the Musk lines! She'd thought she was better than that! She comforted herself, as she swung the broadsword, it's point glinting in the sunlight as it severed the disoriented boy's arm and buried itself into his chest. The scream made her gut wrench, but this was life or death. Survive or be killed. He would spare her no mercy. These monsters wanted to kill her Tir. Kill... Ruby...

They would fall. Turning, she found Metsu had taken no damage, and her remaining two opponents had fallen. They were succeeding! Easily even... None had even nicked her yet! Was... was she truly that good at this?

She shook her head. No. If she were, she wouldn't feel so tired already. Nor would she feel such guilt. But she had to push on. The momentary lapse in opponents was a signal that she was not working hard enough. Fighting sounded from everywhere, and the ground shook with the sound of each new blast of ki sent from the Amazon elders up on the turrets.

A smile flashed between her and Metsu and she turned to find her next opponent...

...only to find Edua's body lying face up on the ground. Her eyes stared vacantly at the sky and a dagger was buried between her breasts.

_"A sister..." _She murmured. _"One I failed to protect." _

The death fueled her rage, and a subtle dim glow began to edge around her. And she followed Metsu. Followed her still-living sisters to her next kill. She could morn her dead companion later.

Later... when the killing was done.

* * *

Ruby stared up at the walls and cringed as the wooden gates shuddered again. Red light exploded and dimmed filtering in over the top of the massive structure, and each one made fear creep up Ruby's spine. Not for herself, but she knew Chell was on those walls. None had fallen yet, wood strengthened by elders placed all around them, straining to keep them standing.

Ruby had to admit she couldn't help but feel awe at the might of the Amazons. And this was supposed to be their weakest village? That thought alone made her shiver. She couldn't see over the wall but the death screams echoing over the other side made her glad for that.

_'Don't worry Ruby. Save as many as you can. That's all you have to do. Don't look back.' _She told herself as another great tremor shook the front gates. They were getting closer.

Archers were launching arrows into the sky, but as far as Ruby could tell they were worse than useless. Each volley was obliterated by Chi attacks before even half of them managed to reach their targets.

Ruby would never admit to it aloud, but she wished Aktaya were there with her. Not for any reason... The girl couldn't _truly_ protect her in any way. She couldn't have gotten _that_ good. Nor could she help protect _Aktaya_ in her weakened state. But still, it would be nice to have her near... just to hold her hand. Ruby feared the mass of women she stood within hid a great many pairs of clasped hands among its worried warriors and medics.

Ruby looked ahead to the main gate and the six women supporting it, causing the structure to glow a golden blue. The walls themselves were little more than trees tied together with _miles_ of rope, but the strength of the elders made those simple fixtures so much more.

Ruby remembered when she'd thought Cologne an amazing fighter. Perhaps the old woman still was but Ruby had never seen the ghoul perform anything like what these elders were capable of.

"She was holding back on me..." Ruby realized grimly. "Either that or she was one of the weaker elders..." Somehow the thought that Cologne of the Amazons was weak seemed to hurt her inside, remembering all the struggle the woman had put her through. No. She had to have been holding back.

Suddenly another tremor wracked the giant gate, and a flash of color erupted from the other side, along with the great boom and cracks of breaking wood. Not seconds later, the gate splintered, and the elders fell back, each skidding for several feet along the ground at the shock of their ki breaking. They stood, but Ruby's eyes could not focus on them. In instants, the splintered gate collapsed, wooden logs tumbling to and fro, leaving only a mess of broken wood to bar the way.

Ruby gulped at what she saw on the other side. Men. Thousands of men, seemingly stretching for miles, all the way back to the mountains. She knew it wasn't that long in her head, but she'd never seen so many people... even Tokyo, while more crowded surely, had never shoved so many people together in such a compressed space. But she was Ruby. She would take what came, and she would fight. In any way she could.

Men piled through the crumbled opening where the gates had once been, the wooden logs...

...and crashed like a wave into a cliff against the awesome power of the six elders below. The old women moved as if in a dance, each singing in tune with the other. A sea of men, and not one seemed to push through the solid barrier of movement the women created. Arrows fell like hail onto the invaders, and screams echoed as Ruby watched the elders slicing heads with no more care then they gave to the severed arms and legs that they left in their wake.

Ruby did not feel the awe any longer. She was not so far from that gate that she couldn't see the tiredness on the old women's brows. She could see their passion and she knew it would not be enough. When the elders broke, it would come to fighting. Amazon verses Musk. Without the elders to tear through the Musk lines, the men would have all of the advantage. And despite the incredible prowess the elders had shown so far, Ruby knew they were not the only ones capable of such marvels.

Tsukigezoku had fallen. Tsukigezoku, the fighter village. If this was the strength of the most pitiful of the Amazon cities, what must the battle of Tsuki been like...? What power must this army have had then, that they had yet to show?

In the distance, Ruby could see nothing. She could only wait, and be ready to advance. Ready to save the elders, who's godlike speed was already beginning diminish.

She stood ready. And began to hear the sounds of a distant humming...

* * *

Su Li Din was irritated. She was not young enough for this anymore. War... war... always war. Twenty years of peace or even fifty, and then always war came to take away the new friends she had made. The new younglings that had been mere babes in her arms, grown into young men and women. Young Amazons. War with the Musk. War with the fools who thought themselves governors and emperors! War with the phoenix. It did not matter. There was always war.

And she was so tired.

Staring down, she sought glowing targets with an almost automatic feel. Men who could create long ranged ki weaponry were the most dangerous.

But none here could match her. She could tell that the prince, Mace, was here, but standing far out of her range. He was injured as well, she was sure, but there were no large threats. Only hundreds and hundreds of small ones. Most Musk were flies unable to even cause a bit of true damage to her city. However, among those flies resided wasps. Each capable of a pitiful sting that Kinagoda should be able to shrug off and laugh at.

But enough stings....

She focused. Her vision was failing, and had been doing so for many years, but it was strong enough for this. In the light of now mid morning, she could see well enough. She could recognize the glow around the men.

Suddenly, a ray of blue confidence streak up towards her, and she deflected it with ease borne of hundreds of years of practice. But then after came another. And another. Each one deflected by an invisible barrier of ki, or else swatted away by her own ephemeral rackets. Taking aim, she took another long blow of her whistle and a beam of fiery read erupted from the lute's end. She could not hear the screams of the men below, but she knew she had hit another.

She was aware of many things, though how she was able to focus on so much at once, even she could not really say. She could tell that the gate had fallen, the Amazons defending it, crushed. That didn't matter much. Amazons were naturally offensive. The men would find that in breaking the gate, they had only risen one step on the ladder that was entry to city of the Amazons.

_'They did that at Tsuki too. Don't make the same mistakes twice!' _Her consciences screamed at her, and she grimaced.

Swatting away another ki attack, this one wiry yellow and laced with confusion, she turned and sent a single ray towards the area just in front of the gates. Holding the ray steady, she swept it, a thin red laser, flashing across the land for a ten meter arc around the front of the gate. Following in its wake, the ground exploded, fiery chasms bursting forth from the earth below. Magma gushed forth and scalded mens' eyes and hands and faces, leaving a three meter tall wall of flames baring a new wave of men from the gates. There. That should hold them off long enough to give the elders below a break.

Turning her attention back to the battlefield, idly batting away blast after blast of pathetic ki, she saw that the ambush, two long lines of women, smash into the right and left sides of the mass of musk, descending from the mountainous forests to the west and east of Kinagoda. The men along the outsides who glowed with the power of the hornets they were began to gutter and die in quick succession, but it would never be enough. The two lines of women would never converge in the middle. It was like crushing a walnut between two sticks. But the sticks were twigs and the walnut the size of a watermelon.

Portions of the walls had already fallen, women scrambling to get away from the hail of arrows shot by the front lines of men on the ground. The great palisade of wooden spiked tree shafts kept all but the most foolhardy from trying to climb though, so at least they could only filter in through the already fallen gate.

And the ambush _had_ been worth something. She felt herself batting away less of the nuisance attacks now. And that was good... she could work with that...

But suddenly, something drew her eyes.

Far in the distance. Far... almost near the tree line, stood a circle of men, surrounded by still more, but in the middle of them, resided a large oval clearing. At that sight, she froze. She'd witnessed this when Tsukigezoku fell, and once before that, many years ago during an earlier Musk war. She'd seen it. She knew what it was, and for truly the first time since the attack had begun, Su Li Din felt fear. Just as she had then...

She turned her eyes towards it. It was too far, but that didn't matter. It had to be stopped.

Her eyes widened as circles suddenly began to clear all over the battlefield, men spreading out seemingly at random to form circles. Humming began to reach her aged ears, a low rumble in some strange language that even she couldn't understand.

"_Destroy the circles!!" _Her voice boomed. _"Din's Fire!" _A bar or blazing red light erupted from her whistle, decimating one of the closer circles of men, and guttering a small bit of the humming. They were using the summonings. _  
_  
She had expected this and upon her command beams began to target the circles in earnest. Destroying the ovals of chanting men and their guards. She turned her whistle on one of the further circles that she knew her sisters would not be able to reach, and fired. The sharp pain of a ki blast throwing her off balance felt like a slap to the face and served to force a grunt from her. And a twitch. A few millimeters, but it threw the ray of red energy she summoned off course, sending it skewering into a stockpile of worthless Musk who were no threat. Silently she cursed herself for her carelessness.

She had to stop the summonings... if they weren't all stopped then they faced almost certain death. Even just one of the animal gods could wreak havoc on them.

_"Goddess help us..." _She prayed silently. _"Please... send us a miracle..."

* * *

_

Aktaya breathed heavily, lying down and trying to remain as still as possible. Her arm ached, from the repeated beatings of an enemy's tonfa. She'd managed to kill the man but she was so tired that she knew she couldn't fight. Not yet. So disguise was her only option. In the midst of battle all around it had not been too difficult to lie down, and cover herself with a blanket of dead musk soldiers. It sickened her, no doubt, but it was better than dying. Better than dying here. She was not giving up though. She would fight as soon as she caught her breath.

Or as soon as a stray foot happened to trample her. Not likely considering where she was, but it was still possible. She lay deep in one of the craters caused by the Amazon's bomb-like arrays. Deciding that a place where everything within had already been incinerated would likely be the safest both from Musk soldiers and friendly firing Amazons, she huddled. Resting...

To her surprise, a sound suddenly began to touch the edges of her ears. Quiet at first, she thought she might just be hearing things. Battle fatigue... But it slowly grew louder, and louder until she knew she couldn't possibly be imagining it. The distinct murmur of voices. Almost like... a buzz or maybe humming. It sounded like a swarm of angry bees, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

For minutes she lay there, the sounds of enemies and allies battling. The raucous roar of battle cries and death screams echoed in her ears, and the shaking of the earth wracked her body, but the dead man did not shift off of her. She was safe... a bit safe. All the while the humming grew louder and louder. Blood trailed out of wounds decorating her body, but she could tell none were too terrible as of yet. Nicks and scrapes all over... but she was alright. She was pretty sure her clothes fit a bit more loosely now, slicing of blades having disrupted a bit of the threads that held them together.

Her time was up. To battle it was.

She stood and bolted out of the crater, to the surprise of a Musk soldier standing right at the edge.

"Amazon wench!" The man screamed, and the voice startled Aktaya out of her wits.

"G-Gal...?" She questioned hoarsely.

The man's eyes settled on her and widened in their own shock. "It... can't be...! Tua? Dear little Tua!? Hah hah! Tua thinks she is an Amazon now!"

Aktaya's eyes narrowed, hate brimming over her features as she stared at the man. The man who had broken her finger, and thus broken _her_ what felt so long ago. The man who had first raped her. A face she could never forget. The one who had failed to claim her, being defeated by Veter instead.

"Galm." She stated, hefting her blade over her shoulder.

"Well... what chance we meet here, little schaat? Where's your collar?" He baited, his very voice irritating her. His nasal tone, and the way his nose poked out reminded her of a pig. Meaty arms lined with what seemed more fat than muscle only added to the image, along with an off red sleeveless tunic and black pants. He looked very much the pig he was.

A pig ready to be slaughtered.

At that thought, Aktaya grinned. "Where's your torture chamber? Get drafted eh?" She mocked, and to her surprise, watched a tick form on the man's forehead.

Abruptly, Aktaya drowned in a memory, words of the elder Itiyo had told her during one of the many training sessions she'd joined, seeking the power that Ruby held. That Chell held. That all the Amazons wielded.

_Girl... You may have touched your ki, but you'll never be strong. Take the redhead's path... it is foolishness to fight with that thing around your wrist. The healers tent is where you belong. Here you will be useless unless you get that manacle off somehow. And the only way to do that is for the person who put it on, to take it off. At least... that's the only way we've found... _

Aktaya had not followed the woman's advice. She had kept fighting. Kept fighting until her battle lead her here, to this ambush. This day. Where by some chance of fate, she had met the person who'd put her manacle on her in the first place...

Aktaya grinned and strained to reach for her ki. Finding it, barely, she pointed the sword at the man. He'd been talking, she realized abruptly. The fool! He was going to get himself killed! What good would he be to her then? He needed to live... long enough for her to touch the manacle to his hand. Just a tap, she'd been told... and the thing would fall off! And then... then she could fight like a true Amazon! Then... she could be strong!

Ignoring his blathering, she charged. A giant swing of the broadsword, aimed a bit to the left of cleaving the man in two, slammed into the ground, slicing the dirt with her first step. She lunged her next foot forward as she withdrew her dagger and flashed it into the man's eyes. She would have raked them out, but the bastard dodged backward just in time.

He held no weapon, unlike most of the Musk, but she could not underestimate him for that. Straining for more ki, she wrenched the sword free its place buried half in the ground, and placed its blunt side between her and the man's fist.

Giggling inside at the sound of the man's knuckles bashing against hard metal, and his subsequent curse, Aktaya took the chance he offered her. Using the blade as a leaver, she leaped and pivoted, holding tight to the foot-long hilt of the claymore and swung herself around to kick the man square in the face. Landing, though, she let out a scream as she missed the full turn. Her arm sliced down on one of her own weapon's blood-covered edges.

The man was dazed. It was her chance! Tearing through the pain in her arm as well as everywhere else, she dashed towards him, abandoning her sword in favor of the dagger. Without warning, his eyes locked onto hers. That was all the time she had before he was beside her. As if in slow motion, her breath was jerked from her, his meaty fist driving into her stomach. Slow. Everything slowed as she felt herself launched back towards where her sword stood hilt up in the ground, gasping for breath.

Slow... but she saw it. As she flew, her stomach doubled over, her legs falling out from beneath her, her arm fell...

...and the manacle touched his wrist.

Like the sound of a thousand bells in her ears, it was truly only a small click. She gasped, listening to the man laughing as she coughed. Desperately trying to catch her breath as her stomach dry heaved at the power behind the punch...

...but she was already grinning.

Sweat lingered on the space where her wrist was finally free of its prison, and it brimmed on her brow. Something was boiling inside her, and she felt it build from deep within. Like a hurricane kept hidden within the depths of the earth waiting to burst free. And now it could. Now the barrier was gone.

She embraced her ki.

And she exploded.

A volcanic eruption of white light surged around her, obscuring her from the view of any looking before she reappeared, staring down at her opponent from her place on the ground. Sitting now in a crater of her own making, she felt the world around her in a clarity she'd never known. It felt _wondrous! _Dimming the pain in her stomach. Her breath came back. Her aches seemed to melt away to nothing. And her vision glazed over in a haze of red.

A diabolic visage mixed with a torrent of power that seemed to radiate off of her tuned out everything but the sound of her own breaths. Liken only to the rage she felt for this man, her face seemed that of a demoness risen from the depths of hell itself.

She watched Galm's expression go from laughter, to shock as she felt the inferno of her ki pulse around her in time with her racing heart. Red flames licked her clothes and a wind that was not the wind sent her hair flickering everywhere as if it were a part of the flames itself. Slowly, she stood. And she wanted to laugh. Power. Power unlike anything she'd ever felt boomed within her, and radiated out. She watched as she walked forward. The man seemed to scream and shy back from her. His screaming grew louder... terrified even! And then filled with pain. The joyous echoes of sweet revenge seemed like a merry tune to her ears as her ki burned him. She watched as his face seemed simply _melt_ before the raw power she now possessed, eyes literally popping in their sockets. How could she be so strong? How could such power be real? How...?

It didn't matter. She had her revenge. Short, sweet revenge.

But many sisters lay dead here. She had more revenge to acquire. She turned to find new opponents, surprised at the sudden clearing she found herself in. No one for almost twenty meters came close to her, but all had their eyes on her. Even a few Amazons stared at her in horror, but she was no threat to them.

Searching though, her eyes found something unusual. A circle of men, staring up into the sky, surrounded by a layer of perhaps twelve fighters standing in her wake.

She'd become separated from other Amazons, the group diluting into one on one battles. Battles which slowly degenerated into each Amazon surrounded on all sides by fighters. She thanked whatever deities she still believed in for her choice of weapons. More than once a simple whirlwind of her giant blade had ended the lives of her enemies and given her time to flee being surrounded.

But that fact made her almost sure she was almost sure she was on her own. On her own, to stop whatever this... ritual was.

She turned up to glance towards the walls. Fights were breaking out on the tops where ladders were allowing the grunts in. Beams still showered the musk and watching them was like watching a glistening, writhing rainbow, crafted of death and mayhem. Explosions still echoed around her and she saw the bodies of men chucked into the air with each one. More explosions shook the walls and towers had been falling. The tallest one still stood though. The one that repeatedly sent out those incredible burning rays that felt like they could topple mountains.

So far though, only the giant red beams from the tallest turret had been able to reach as far as she was. She was safe from them. She hoped. Turning back, she realized the thin layer of men surrounding the circle, most of them having edged warily away from the crater she'd been hiding in before, were now beginning to notice her.

The wind swept her hair. Blood trailed down her cheeks, and her eyes held a determination that she was certain could mimic Ruby's own.

The Musk soldiers, nameless to her, almost faceless in their mass. Each different. Some with eyes that resembled hawks. Some hooked noses imitating eagles. Some seemed to be naturally thin and limber. Unbearably quick, as if related to a swift and ferocious cat. Still others were burly and hairy. Muscle coated them like a second skin. No two alike. No two any more innocent then the next. Their crimes made killing them easier. Made their faces seem all but images on a chalkboard. As flat and lifeless as she would make them when she began her attack.

She charged.

A hook nosed man was her first opponent, and his own blade, a halberd had range that surpassed even her own. The clang of metal echoed as her great broadsword stopped dead against the metal tip of the hooknosed man's weapon. Instantly, Musk circled her. The hiss of a rapier echoed in her mind and she wrenched the connection of her sword and the halberd between her and the hissing shortsword, granting her another satisfactory 'clang.' Finding its owner, she delivered a sharp kick to the halberdier, melding her ki perfectly to make the kick count. The hollow gasp that echoed was magic to her ears as the halberd fell back, knocking over a few other soldiers and leaving her free to spin her broadsword.

She didn't know who, but she felt the blade sink into the flesh of at least two Musk during its wide arc before coming to rest the flat of the blade on her shoulder, held calmly with her right hand.

Men surrounded her completely now, rage coloring their features as they stepped over their fallen comrades. Still she smirked as she flourished the dagger in her left hand. The men were afraid of her! Hah... all their lives they'd trained and they were _afraid of her!_

If she could see the deadly red glow pulsing beneath her skin, she might have understood why.

"Come on." She stated with confidence gained from her time spent with Ruby. All from Ruby. "Who thinks they can take me?" As she spoke, she watched the blue of confidence filter into the red of her rage, melding into a deep purple aura, but she took no time to notice it.

Striking first, her body blurred with speed that it had never known. Dancing to the beat of a song of battle conjured by her mind, her broadsword cut down foes like a whirlwind. Shattering weapons as easily as bodies. Following with her left hand, her dagger slit in wherever the great weapon missed. The halberdier's arm was cleaved from him, leaving the man screaming. The dagger blocked the falling blade of the rapier before she could whirl the broadsword around and slice it through the man's eyes. The strikes the men attacked her with, once so quick that she'd felt terror with each swing, now seemed as if swung underwater. And _she_ was that water, sliding fluidly around every blow, and slipping her weapons almost gracefully into enemy ribcages and legs.

Without warning, a burst of light flared around her vision and an impact wracked her. She felt herself skid along the ground, fighting back the blindness in her eyes.. Her back screamed with the hot burn of it and her front screamed louder. Her eyes slowly collected light again and she saw the visage of an old man staring down at her and grinning, his hands cupped in the form of a ki blast, and she knew what had hit her. Her muscles ached but she wasn't surrounded at least. Pulling herself to her feet she gathered all the rage she could, staring at the grinning old man.

A white beard was the only hair on the old man's face, his bald top seeming to glint sunlight off into her eyes. A blue vest, sleeveless to showcase his muscle, she might have been awed by him once. Now she stood. Only minutes ago, a blast like that would have scoured her from the face of the earth and she knew it. But not now. Now...

The red seeped away further as confidence began to dominate her physique. She was stronger than anyone! Than _anyone! _He wanted to throw light at her...? Well...

She shoved the blade of the broadsword into the ground as she'd done so many times before, staring at the confident old man. She was stronger. She _knew _she was stronger. She could do this! She could... just... force the power... through her stomach, like they had taught her.

She held her arm out, her dainty hand vibrating with the effort to control the power she sent there. Crackles of electricity began to race up her arms and the hair on the back of her neck rose with the feeling. Her chest heaving with tiredness that she could barely feel she cupped one hand. Slowly, a small blue bauble of energy began to seep from the edge of her fingertips.

_"Die..."_

A low, throaty voice that she was shocked to realize was her own. And then...

Her eyes widened, and her arm jerked back. A flare of blue burst forth from her hand, a cone of force engulfing every enemy in front of her in a crashing funnel of blue light. Accompanied by a boom that made any sound she'd ever heard before seem weak an petty in comparison, the blast buffeted her through the air, flopping haphazardly onto the fallen body of a dead Amazon. Men on the outskirts of the blast were flung into the air, far further than she had been. She could only hear the sharp, short screams of those unlucky enough to be caught within.

When the smoke cleared dust settling into a ten meter trench along the ground where her might had been displayed. At the end of the trench, a pile of bodies lay, limbs entangled in every possible direction, broken faces tinged with widened eyes and horror in their last moments.

"Take that..." She breathed, the first fringes of tiredness beginning to filter into her mind as she realized just what she'd just done.

_'_I could... blow up _buildings_ with that!_ Holy shit!' _The sudden shock of the things she'd just been doing seemed to hit her with the force of a hammer. She turned behind her and viewed the wasteland of men she'd created with her earlier battle. Then she turned forward to the trench again, shuddering as her eyes skimmed across the bodies, bile rising in her throat.

The _'high' _was wearing off. Normalcy was starting to set in, along with terror at the power she had. Luckily, guilt was only minimal. Fifty dead with that attack. Maybe more. Men still surrounded her, though none close enough to be dangerous unless they were capable of producing long ranged ki attacks.

_'What in the world have I become...?'_ The thought brimmed across her mind mutely as she tried to erase the image of the broken bodies from her mind.

A dry numbness began to wash over her, sapping away the desire to kill that had driven her so fully before. To her regret she dimly realized that whatever it was she had become, she needed to _stay_ that way. Or she was going to die. Trying to get back the bloodlust that had all but consumed her before, she began halfheartedly searching for more opponents. Scrambling to pick up her broadsword, she felt something... A change in the air. Something was... strange. Something was missing.

A shiver crawled up her spine as she realized what it was. The humming had stopped. More-so, the war cries... _the jeers_... the battleground was almost... silent. Fear began to prickle at the back of her neck as she turned back towards where the circle of men had been before.

Her eyes widened in horror as a chorus of shrieks rose. Looking into the ring of men, she found the cause. Women stood in the clearing formed by that ominous circle. Women dressed in Musk soldier attire. A strange yellow barrier seemed to materialize between her and the circle of men, crafted of thin filmy ki. The thing pulsed but did not shut out the sound of the women. They writhed like the upper half of a snake cleaved in two their bodies rigid and jerky as they screamed from some unknown torment.

They were dying...

As fast as she could she blitzed towards the circle but she already knew she was too late. The humming had stopped, and somehow that felt like the key to it all. The ritual, whatever it was, had already been completed.

A burst of wind and a rush of energy stopped her dead, forcing her to shield her eyes as the cylinder surrounding the men and women brightened tenfold to a light that seared her eyes and hid everything from view, leaving her blinking long after the light faded. When it finally cleared, and her eyes recovered from the dots of black interrupting her vision, she stared at where the circle had been. The men were gone, but it didn't take her long to spot them, running like rabbits each directly away from the center of the circle.

And there in the center lay a pile of forty or fifty women, their eyes glazed with the hint of death. They were covered by a strange sort of shadow and a... _hoof?_

The first hoof she spotted made her think she was delusional. But no. She followed the hoof and found, as if from thin air, others were appearing. Three hoofs, shimmering into existence, and rising forming as they rose up. Connecting...

Fear began to twist Aktaya's stomach as her eyes trailed up... and up...

The hoofs began to charge, even as the great head of a gigantic boar seemed to finish coalescing into existence. Shock held her as she tried to rationalize what she'd just seen. A moment too long, before she realized the boar was running straight for her. As fast as she could she dove, trying to get into the trench her ki blast had created some ten paces behind her. Not fast enough. She let loose a short scream as the fore-hoof, greater in height than even the walls of Kinagoda itself, trampled her in a full run, the great paw raking through her face and sending her careening to the ground. Only the defense of her seemingly limitless ki kept the colossal hoof from cleaving her head clean off.

Smashing bodily into the ground, she felt the snap of her own limbs as she fell awkwardly and searing pain seemed to scald her face. She screamed and grabbed desperately at her eye, but only long enough for the giant boar's rear hoof to crush her into the dirt in its mad dash. Her body felt as if it had been snapped. The taste of something warm in her mouth made her gag.

Her eye made her want to scream, but the pain was fading. Why was the pain going away...? She was hurt wasn't she? It should hurt! So badly it should hurt... so why was she starting to feel...?

'Is this... dying?' She thought grimly.

Consciousness only stayed with her long enough for her to gasp a few raspy breaths, and catch the sight of the boar's giant flanks as it rushed towards the blazing gates of Kinagoda. She had failed.

Darkness.

* * *

"Girl... you're too brave, and too stupid. You're going to get yourself killed." The old woman rasped in simple mandarin. Ruby understood from her year in prison with Chell. Small talks between other cellmates. Words that had made no sense slowly beginning to coalesce into comprehension. She understood them. Words like 'brave,' 'stupid,' and 'girl' stuck out like sore thumbs and it wasn't hard to piece together the rest of the sentence. But she ignored the elder.

"Worse, you'll get that child killed."

A pang hit Ruby in the gut. Whether it was guilt or the baby kicking, she couldn't tell. But, as with most things, she disregarded it and turned back to the elder's wounds. "I will not stop." She stated simply for what must have been the third time. "I _will not_ stop."

Continuing to wrap bandages around the frail woman's arms, having already yanked out several arrowheads, Ruby could not count the number of wounds she'd treated since this day had begun. Too many. Far too many. But not one sister that she had treated had fallen dead yet. Each one had stood and returned to the fight. With a thanks, and a nod of appreciation that Ruby hardly took the time to acknowledge before continuing on to search out another wounded and drag her back to the small alcove she'd been using in one of the more sturdy looking houses.

The sun crept high overhead now, shining with a buoyancy that belied the death and dying being wrought here today. Honestly, it was everything Ruby could do to keep herself from falling down and crying. Why? Why was this happening? What fueled the Musk's unquenchable hate? Why this war...? To what purpose? Why did so many have to die?

The gates had fallen. Rather quickly even, but that didn't matter. The Amazons warriors inside the gates were as strong a wall as the gates themselves were. More, Ruby had underestimated the prowess of Amazons who were not called 'elder.' For every ten musk dead, only one Amazon fell. The number might be even higher for all she could tell, and that shocked her. Ruby would never have thought women could be so strong. She was one now, but long prejudices from Ranma's former life still held sway in her mind.

After all... _she_ had been a man once.

The smell of blood stained Ruby's nose, and her eyes stung with the grit of sweat. She was almost certain her face was covered with soot and ash from the explosions she'd come so close too as well, but she could do little about that. Wiping uselessly at her forehead, and letting the cold air scald her heated lungs and heart, she continued her work as quickly as possible. She finished tying the hasty knot in the old woman's arm and gave the arm a small poke to numb the pain the woman probably felt. She was better at hiding it than Ruby felt she would have been.

"That'll hold for a while." She stated, as if the elder didn't know. "Try not to favor it when you kill. If you have to, wield that thing with the other hand, but you don't have to rely on it completely."

The elder nodded.

Ruby jumped up from her crouching position, and prepared to leave once more. To foray into the devastation again, and save another. This one had been special and she was glad she'd been able to get to her. One of the original six who had been holding the gate, though Ruby didn't know the woman's name.

She probably never would.

"Girl--no... Good work, Sister. Goddess keep you safe." There was no doubt to the punctuality of the name the elder had given her. Sister. It felt warm... welcome. Then the elder was gone before Ruby could blink, hauling her bloody morning star with her.

The place was decently secluded, A small building cooped into a corner, well hidden from view by a decent layer of four or five cabins between the courtyard where most of the fighting was going on. Once or twice she'd been forced to kill men at the door, so not the best place. Luckily, it seemed there were hardly _any_ men here of a caliber beyond that of 'grunt soldier.' They could use their ki, but it didn't permeate them. They were vulnerable to things like arrows, daggers, and even punches, that weren't powered by energy. Of course, that was only if they weren't _aware_ of an attack. Otherwise, they might as well have been made of diamond for all she could do to them.

To her shame, even Aktaya was more powerful than she. Once the girl had touched her ki, through the single manacle she wore, it had been almost easy for the girl to make her power grow. Ruby on the other hand had to fight for every little scrap of power she could find. To pull the entirety of her power into each individual attack, if only to get even a speck of energy.

Sighing, she took a moment to rest her eyes. Her face was almost certainly covered in soot and ash. Considering how many explosions had buffeted her, and come inches from blasting her to pieces, she was glad that was all. Glad that she was still undamaged enough to complain about soot and ash, even if only to herself.

Tiredness was her primary enemy. She was too skilled to fall to any clumsy attack, but too weak to really be of use. Where a normal Amazon could power through the defenses of men, she could only hurt them if they were unaware of her attack. It was something that was beginning to eat away at her when she had to escape, time after time, to get back to her little nook and wrap the broken arms of fighters more _useful_ than her. If she was covered in soot and ash, then she was _bathed_ in the blood of her patients. Any desire she had ever had to be a doctor once-- in a previous life now it seemed --had evaporated today.

Her hands were always clean. Each place had water regardless of what it was, and her nook was no exception. Keeping her hands clean was priority, and she did it every chance she could. Healing was useless if she infected the wounds with dirt and killed the warrior without another bit of steel touching her.

Tired as she was, she knew she had to keep moving. For as tired as she felt, hundreds should be dead in her wake. But no. Two. Two enemies dead and thirty seven Amazon's patched up and sent to battle again. Likely to die...

...while she complained of soot and ash.

Useless didn't even begin to describe it. But she had to do what she could. God but she wished she could be with Aktaya. Fighting out there on the field. The girl was strong. She would probably be okay now, as long as she made sure to keep her head down when she grew too tired to push ki through that damn manacle on her wrist.

That prompted a glare at her own manacles. If only she could take them off... Well. No whining about what couldn't be changed.

Stepping out into the sunlight she took account of the battle, and leapt away in an instant, a mad dash, diving beneath the stilts the small house was held on.

A roar that shook her to her bones boomed in her ears as she gazed up at the paw of a bear standing taller than the tallest tree, swiping at people with claws the size of cars. Screams echoed from each swipe followed by the crunch of buildings falling beneath its paws. Wood snapping and metal scraping and bending. Ruby stared back in horror at the segment of wall that was missing where the bear had probably smashed its way through.

Wooden stakes, trees actually from the remains of the wall drove into the bear's furry stomach and front paws but it seemed undeterred.

Ruby wished she could do something... anything.

Sadly, she knew she was already doing all she could. Lugging her ever widening belly around was becoming a chore and a half, on its own let alone what she was trying to do. Even as the bear thrashed about above, slowly wandering away from the building she hid beneath, she scanned the ground for fallen Amazons. The numbers were not few. No dragging back to the nook. She'd have to treat them as best she could on the field and pray that a group of soldiers didn't attack her.

Scampering out, feeling much like a mouse, she hurried to the first fallen fighter she found. A snapped bow lay at the brown haired woman's side and arrows scattered about the ground around her. Luckily, this one didn't look too bad.

"Are you alright?" She asked, noting that the woman was still conscious, if dizzy. She'd been thrown bodily across the ground to land in heap, but already she was moving.

"I... I am fine, _medic._" The woman turned the comment into a snort as she realized to whom, or rather _what_ she spoke to. _Medic._ "Go work your poultices on warriors more in need than I."

Even as she said it the woman rose to a sitting position and began grabbing arrows before noticing her snapped bow. With a curse the woman withdrew a belt knife and searched a fallen musk to pick up a rather plain looking sword, and she left without a word running off towards the towering bear still roaring in the distance.

_'Medic.'_ Ruby thought derisively to herself. _'I do what I can. That's all.' _

Most the time, Amazon's would see the shackles on her wrists and ankles and gape, before nodding in a slight bit of awe. If they didn't notice them however, their comments were just shy of barbaric. And painful. Luckily Ruby, unlike Ranma of old, did not survive on ego alone. Her ki was powered by rage, revenge, and most of all resolve. Determination to win at all costs. A thing which melded well with the confidence she once had and crafted something far more powerful.

If not for the manacles. Pushing as she always did, she listened and felt them thrum under her pressure. They never gave. Not an inch. Not a hair. Not even for an instant did they feel like they would crack or shatter. The things were unbreakable. And her will was starting to waver.

Despite that, something strange had happened to her over time. She had forgotten... how to _stop_ pushing. The manacles _always_ thrummed. There were only two options. Pushing, and pushing harder. She didn't remember how to stop... At times she thought that might be a bad thing, but what could be bad about it? Someday she might even be able to draw as much ki as Ranma had been capable of even with the manacles on. Until then...

Her eyes trailed to the sky. She longed for the air, but her feet couldn't take her there anymore. Midair combat had been a love of her life, forgotten in the kennels. Now she was desperate to fly once more. If she just kept pushing... maybe... someday...

Surprise crossed her features as she realized she'd been working on autopilot. Three unconscious women lay in a line draped in a small clearing where the least rubble from the broken wall had fallen. Two of them with bandages already wrapped around their wounds. Most of them came from blunt impact from the bear's body itself, or from falling remnants of the walls, but a few had raked bloody trenches through their skin. Surely the bear's claws raking through had been the cause of that.

Quickly checking them over to make sure she hadn't foolishly set a bone wrong, she found that they were quite well taken care of. They all had a very similar look to them; each had black hair, and too her surprise, all three were shorter than her. Two were obviously older. One she might have thought barely over ten... A grandmother, mother, and daughter she would be willing to guess, though there were always numerous black haired women to be found in China and the Amazons were no exception.

She continued bandaging a fourth woman, lying her down and listening to her wince. She was the first conscious one Ruby had found after the bear, but the girl did her best to remain calm in light of the fact that she was missing four fingers. How the hell that happened, Ruby couldn't fathom. Beautiful purple hair, short though reminiscent of Xian Pu's in color. The girl clearly had the will of a hero in her to not be screaming, or even all that horrified.

The segment of the village she resided in was secluded from the fighting, and she felt a great luck for that. The bear had gotten back here, but she thought it had fallen now, and no men came seeking kills this far yet.

Quickly she was proven wrong as she saw the furry animal crest a nearby peak and slice a turret, sending the small tower crumbling in a shower of splinters and logs. It didn't end there. Moving further from her still to the west, the bear rose on its hindlegs and skewered a segment of wall opening it to the soldiers still stuck outside. Still far from her, but she could hear the yells of Amazon archers as giant claws scraped the wall to pieces.

A boar she could see surrounded by elders slowly bringing the thing down, had smashed through another segment of wall further along the lines, but it appeared to be fighting even harder than the bear had.

The girl below her gave a slight whimper in pain, and Ruby turned her attention back to her healing.

"Be calm..." Ruby soothed the woman. "Tell me, what is your name?"

The purple haired girl fidgeted but her breathing did relax. "I'm Aidlem," The girl whispered. Ruby could tell the girl was trying desperately not to clutch the stubs that were her now bandaged fingers by the way her thumb kept tensing.

"It's alright Aidlem. I... I know you're probably shocked. Just stay calm like you have been and we should be okay." She murmured soothingly as she ran her patient's body over with an eye that was growing rather good at this. No external injuries beyond the cuts and bruises one would expect. If she had to guess, the girl had been holding a sword, and so had her Musk opponent. The opponent probably lay dead but she had clearly not gotten off unscathed.

"M-my fingers... H-how... how will I fight...? I..." The girl was in a sort of silent shock. Good for Ruby. Probably not good for her health but better than having her screaming in pai--!

"AHHHHH!!!!"

Ruby jumped out of her skin in shock as the girl let out a howl to wake the damned. Turning, she saw that the damage was already done. Eyes of every Musk, Amazon, and giant creature for a mile had trained straight on her as the scream ripped through the sounds of battle and lesser screams alike. She quickly thumped the girl on the head, knocking her into unconsciousness, but in hindsight, it had been a useless effort.

Ruby gazed toward the men, staring up from below the main gates, their focus drawn like moths to flame. Her will hardened. As always her will to win and her drive quadrupled as the onset of battle approached her and she steeled herself for hopeless battle once more...

...but then she froze.

Behind them, striding in through the gate, lay a thing of nightmares.

The men were charging but she didn't see them. She couldn't move. Her heart ceased its beating and her mind shut down. Her breath seemed caught in her chest as her eyes widened to the size of moons, horror sundering through her vision and clouding her mind in a blank haze of fear so powerful that she couldn't summon the will to run. To scream. To do anything.

A behemoth. Striding on four paws, its tail flicked and sliced bodies remained in its wake. Paws as strong as they were feral, each one the size of her entire body. Teeth that made a viper's fangs seem dull, bared when the beast opened its mouth but two great teeth, sabers as tall as houses curled down over its jaw. She watched in mute terror as it sunk its teeth into the body of a Musk unlucky enough to have happened upon its path.

Its face rose, blood and body parts lining the scum between its teeth. A wild beast, but a name fluttered through her mind as it fought to keep from shutting down. Bast, the cat god, summoned here in the flesh. A name she only knew from her subconscious nightmares and dreams, filtering about through the torture the Neko-ken had wracked on her physique. The name of the patron god of the curse she'd been given so long ago.

The men were upon her, yet she couldn't bring herself to move. A great two handed halberd was readied cleave her in two by a man more muscled than even Borage. Behind him others rushed her, their fists and sharp-edged blades bared, rage blurring their features.

Her eyes became slitted. Ferocity crept into her tongue.

She gave a cheshire grin...

* * *

Ruby awoke abruptly, chagrined. She didn't know how, but she was absolutely certain of where she was. In her head. In her mind. A red haze seemed to cover walls as if crafted of the inner side of the mouth. The red walls, tinged with veins and blood vessels, formed a long, wide hallway, ever contracting and expanding around her.

It looked... all in all, like the inside of a brain. She'd always assumed people had a mindscape to reflect their personalities but if this was it, then her imagination was utterly pathetic.

_'Why am I here?' _She thought, and the voice echoed all around the red hazed hallway.

The answer suddenly came to her. _Neko-ken._

She took a few steps forward, and watched images seem to fade into the walls, red haze melding with the deep blacks and blues of a memory. A dim thread of light splintered through the image, seeping from a crack high above whatever the dark picture was showing. But Ruby did not have to wait long to find what. Sounds began to echo from the memory. Hissing cats. Hissing, biting, tearing at flesh. And the small whimpers of a boy who didn't want to give in. Who wanted to learn an ultimate technique! Who didn't want to disappoint...

To her surprise, Ruby felt no fear. Just regret and rage. Who could say what her body was doing right now? Probably getting itself killed. The cat didn't know what it was like to be weak... Surely its power could no better overcome the manacles than her own could. Right..?

She turned away from the image and strode down the hall, listing to the sounds of whimpers fade into the distance. Another image appeared, this one on the right wall. Waking up... an old lady's? Yes... that was how Ranma had gotten out of the Neko-ken the first time, wasn't it?

She continued still further. Images that she'd never seen before began to arise. A battle with a tiger in the school's gymnasium. A girl... who was... Oh yes. Akane... It had been so long since Ruby had seen the face that the blue tresses of her hair seemed foreign. Chocolate Brown eyes seemed dim in the image, time having diluted the girl's features. But the memory was there. Ruby flushed as she saw a black haired boy with slitted eyes happily laying his lips on Akane's before curling up to sleep on her lap.

_"What is this...?" _Again the thought reverberated like a gong. Neither startling nor even strange to her, in the way that strange things were normal in dreams.

Suddenly, Ruby realized that there was an end to the passage in sight. The passage way opened into a wide antechamber ahead. Her stride didn't break as she turned to watch an intense battle between a red-haired girl and Ku Lon of the Amazons. A victory that should have been a defeat. The old woman should have been able to trounce her without pause... or could she? Looking closer at the image she saw Ku Lon's startled visage. Genuine fear in her eyes for all of a second as she watched the cat-minded redhead rocket towards her.

Was Neko-ken truly that powerful?

More images. Xian Pu's cursed form appearing to coerce him into dating her. Splashing in water and watching Ranma wake up as if from a dream.

And then... the final image on the wall.

A giant black saber-toothed tiger staring at her... slowly advancing, agile shoulders rising with each step to brush the twenty foot frame of the fallen gates of Kinagoda. Tail flicking and death following in its wake as it ripped through amazons, walls, and buildings alike, she watched the image of the tiger sliding through the gates, all in the background. At the front of the image, the back of a red-haired girl, standing alone facing the cat, wind whipping her waist-length pigtail and her clothes alike. One girl stood as other amazons fled from the cat in the background. Yellow eyes slitted, and an aura of willpower slowly beginning to glow around her.

Ruby turned away as the final image faded. She reached the antechamber and was surprised to discover how little fear she felt. The cat waited here. The cat she saw in the back fringes of her nightmares. The piece of the cat god's spirit that had been melded to her soul, so long ago. Now she knew. Now she understood how the Neko-ken had worked. How cats still inspired such terror in her even after so long. All she didn't know was...

_"Why have you brought me here?" _She echoed. This time with the intent to drive her voice into those who waited in her mind with fury.

The antechamber was a wide dome with a gray floor. And she knew what it was. A battle room. The dojo of her mind. As if from thin air, the great cat god appeared before her, staring her down in all its fury. And she was not afraid.

"It is _you_ who has called me, human." The voice seemed to echo in the same way her own thoughts did, booming with the same effect as her own. Scalding her, trying to push her into fear. But the fear would not come. It had been so long since she could look at a feline and feel any emotion but terror. She savored this. She reveled in it, and she used it to fuel her.

_"You're always here. Always sitting in the back of my mind. Stroking my terror whenever I see one of you and yours. One of your cats. So long you've tortured me! _Why?" She let her thoughts free, anger and frustration from years of fear and nightmares pent up and hidden away so far that she didn't even remember how much the feelings hurt.

"Because you were worthy..." Came the solemn response. "Best me. Defeat Bast, the Lord of Tigers, and your pain will come to an end. My avatar. My one true summoner. I've waited... _for so long..._"

_'That's why...' _She thought. And she knew. The Neko-ken. All along, it had not been a technique. No...

It was a summoning ritual.

The cat stood ten times her height. But that did not matter. She was not afraid. As the beast lunched, baring teeth as long as she was tall, she knew that she _could_ win this battle. Because... finally, she was unafraid.

Instead of backing away, she dashed forward, forcing the cat to halt in midair, his leap overshooting her lithe, nimble form. The tail sliced through Ruby's position, but hit nothing as the girl leaped. Taking to the sky, freedom such as she had only dreamed about took her soul. Arcing above even the great cat, she landed on the tip of the giant tail, sliding gracefully down the arc and up towards Bast's flanks.

The cat would have none of it. It rolled ridding Ruby of her precarious footing and forcing her to leap once more. Into the air like she had only dreamed of in the eternity she'd spent imprisoned, she arced up and above the colossal animal, and fell, weaving through a quick swipe of the cat's claws without taking a graze.

She landed in a run, sliding around Bast's relentless onslaught, dodging until she cleared the uncanny range of those giant claws.

Gathering her despair around her like a cloak, recalling the terror she'd felt outside when faced the monster before her, she cupped her hands together, feeling happiness seeping away...

_"Shi Shi Hokodan..."_ she deadpanned. A hurtling blast of green light burst from her fingertips, a green sphere the size of the cat's head. For a moment the green bomb bashed into Bast's forehead, knocking the surprised cat back with a hissing screech as it reared up onto its hind paws to get away from the burning attack. To no avail... the blast exploded sending the cat toppling backwards to skid along the chamber floor for a few feet, leaving a trail of smoking stone in its wake.

Down, but not out, the cat shook itself wobbly. Ruby gave it no time to recover though. Leaping into the air, landed on the back of the beast's snout, turning around to face slitted eyes as large as her own head. _"Kachu Tenhin Amaguriken!"_ She bellowed, even her fists sung the melody of speed. Bashing the beasts eyes in hundreds of times before the creature could even blink, she felt satisfaction as they ruptured under her barrage, leaving a bloody, gooey waterfall to splash over her.

Losing her balance, she slid ungracefully off Bast's thrashing nose. In a split second she saw the great paw rising towards her and took covered, her arms automatically hovering over her slightly distended stomach as a blaze of maternal terror swept over her...

...and she screamed as the paw, in a desperate grasp for its own eyes, raked through her back. Flinging her to the ground from the massive nail seemingly ripping through her, she fell like a sack to land hard on the ground below. Agony tearing through her, it was all she could do to stopper her own howling and make herself focus on the cat. Heart pounding she turned to watch it thrash, uselessly clawing at its destroyed eye. Weakly, she scampered away, dragging herself by her fingers across the ground on her stomach. Doing her best to ignore the pain of the bloody wounds and partially missing back of her woolen vest, she rubbed her fingers over her stomach in momentary worry before discerning that no damage had been done to her child.

There was nothing to hide behind. No way to run and formulate a plan, but as she grew further from the great beast, she realized that she didn't need one.

The animal was blinded, and now was her chance to finish the creature. Moaning in frustration, she rose to her feet, eyes tearing up at the effort. Steeling herself like never before she focused on the object of her eternal terror. She would win at any cost. To never feel such fear again. To never feel the terror of their little paws. To end her curse... any cost. She set off at a dead run towards Bast's paws as they scraped wildly at its bloody eyes. Circling them, and the creature itself, she weaved over black furred paws and thrashing tail like a mouse with a death wish and a hunger for vengeance. Scampering into the great cats underbelly, she swirled, taking with her the rage of the angry animal and her own calmness.

Three steps... two... one.  
_  
"Hiryu Shoten Ha!"_

Her voice banged all around like a burst of gunfire, and was accompanied by the eruption of a sudden funnel of air surrounding her. It widened, its top slamming into Bast's giant stomach. The cat howling abruptly cut off with a sharp hiss before the twister expanded further. Ruby screamed as she watched the tornado's wrath grow hot above her, wind beginning to rip at the cat god's flesh. It let loose a loud mewl of pain before suddenly lifting into the air. Fur matted the visible cyclone, beginning to decorate the channels of swirling air, and becoming razors slicing into the cats own skin.

Ruby stared in awe, remembering the power she once held and reveling as the cat's stomach and body lifted far up and away from her before stopping with a reverberating clatter as it slammed into the ceiling. Hissing in denial of its fate, Ruby tinged with the thoughts of victory. Staring up she watched as the great belly ripped in half down the middle, accompanied by a squeal. Loud and low, it sounded like a bolder crying, but Ruby could feel nothing but joy. A pair of legs abruptly flung to either side of the confines of the chamber, one attached to a giant head, and the other holding a still flicking tail.

Ruby breathed hard feeling the tornado around her slowly fade, shimmer and die.

She'd won...

She'd finally...

"I can't be beaten that way..." The voice echoed but her eyes snapped to the upper part of the cat's colossal body. Blood covered it and fur had been ripped randomly from it all around making it look like some disfigured, partially hairless rat. But... it was talking.

She watched as the bloody corpse seemed to evaporate away, dissolving forming into a coalescing mist. Blood, its own blood, filtered off of her body into that strange filmy mass of white hovering in the air each piece floating slowly towards each other. All around the mist seemed to form, burbling out of the cracks in the stone where the cat's blood or hairs had sprayed, leaving no trace of the furious battle they'd had in their wake, save for her and her heavy panting.

Panic began to take her as an equal cloud had formed from the cat's lower half, but she quickly quelled it. She didn't know how once again, but she knew that cloud was going to reform into a newly refreshed cat god. So the path was simple. She couldn't let it reform. It had been easy enough to kill, now that she wasn't so damn terrified of it. So keeping it from reforming shouldn't be hard.

Letting her depression filter through once more, now being no time to attempt to employ confidence, she hurtled another green blast of energy at her intangible opponent, and watched in horror as it exploded against the far wall, the mist not having even been touched by the pressurized air.

_"Kijin Raishuu Dan!"_ She screamed pulling forth arts from her father's forbidden school in desperation, watching as vacuum blades passed through the mist.

And she was running out of time. Before her she watched as a set of four paws, black and sharp as ever seemed to sink down to touch the floor, growing forth from the pooling mist.

_"Why... Why doesn't it do anything!?" _She thought frantically, the thought echoing all around. _"I... I'm going to lose if this keeps up..."_

The torso began to form paws already flexing in their newly crafted body, but her dismal thoughts were already powering a third Shi Shi Hokodan. Gathering the green ball before her she prepared it, taking the time the animal was giving her to charge the ki blast to its fullest potential. She smelled the deep scent of burning and the noxious tinge of her own sweat. The pain in her back was relentless boring into her like a pulsating wound and growing with each new fur that appeared on the cat god's legs. She felt blood dribbling down her backside and legs, drying and crisping in the intense heat of the battle before her.

Growing ever larger the pulsating orb of energy expanded until it blocked her vision. Straining, sweat trailed her cheeks in rivers, the green blast aching to expel the momentum she channeled into it. Tension began to build like that of holding a bowstring drawn to the point of breaking. She could almost hear the creak...

Fire filled her lungs but she held until she could hold no more. Finally, just as Bast's head was almost fully reformed, she left the ball go. It exploded from her, knocking her back to slam into the far wall, barreling down on its prey with the fury of depression in what was surely stronger than even Ryoga's perfected attack, what felt so long ago.

Reaching the animal in an instant the blast exploded with the sound of a bomb leaving a burst of smoke and a rush of heat. The smoke cleared quickly, and Ruby's hope began to dim even further. Somehow, she'd expected it though.

Bast had not been harmed in the slightest. The cat didn't even seem fazed.

Genuine fear began to bubble in the pit of her stomach. Fear that was her own. Fear of an enemy to great for her to handle. An enemy who wished nothing more than her pure destruction, and was willing and able to get what it wanted.

She'd spent so much time being afraid. So much time fearing. Resisting most assuredly, but she couldn't let go the fear that still bottled in her mind. Fear of being captured again. Fear for her child. Fear of losing those she'd come to care for so much. Fear. It was hard to believe that a simple fear of cats had topped all of those terrible things for so long. It wasn't right. It wasn't right that fear of a small animal should be stronger than that of losing a loved one.

Fear. She wasn't afraid of the cat right now. Not until it showed that its might was strong enough that it _should_ be feared. It had been no more than a great big animal. Why? Why didn't she feel afraid. This was her own mind. This was where she should feel most afraid... right?

Or... was she looking at it the wrong way?

Her mind flew in fury as she tried to come up with a way to win this battle. Determination strong enough to move mountains with will alone backed by a tactical mind that had never truly failed searched with fervor to find a way. And...

_"I see..." _She stated.

Bast flinched.

_"This is a test." _She stated. _"To see if I'm brave enough..."_

The cat crouched and sprung forward in a dead dash gigantic teeth bared ready to taste human flesh. Paws ready to rip her to shreds.

_"I'm not afraid. No... I'm... I'm aloof... carefree... curious..."_

As she stared at the running animal, the pain in her back began to fade. Her mind began to twist and the fleshy walls around her seemed to ripple.

_"I feel... clever... sharp..."_

The cat was upon her, its giant teeth descending, ready to swallow her whole.

_"If I'm to be your avatar... I can't fear you, can I...?"_

Her world was drenched in darkness as teeth sliced into her. Pain ruptured through her like she had never known, but she already had the answer.

_"I am unafraid. Not of death. Not even of you..."_

Her eyes became slitted. Ferocity crept into her tongue.

She gave a cheshire grin...

And suddenly she stared through those eyes at a thinner, slower world. Musk soldiers lay dead behind her as she stared up at Bast, not remembering how those men had died, but knowing she had done it. She gave a sniff, testing the air. The smell of death. Decay. Heat. Battle. Enemies and friends...

...And a brother.

She reached up, a small hand, towards the great teeth of her older brother, ignorant or uncaring of the dropping jaws of still living Musk and Amazons around her. Great teeth two fangs like sabers curving out over Bast's jaw came down to meet her and she petted the fur on the side of his nose. She giggled brightly and hugged her kin's snout, warmth creeping over her. She allowed it for a moment, but only that. Firmness took her eyes again and she turned to stare at the invaders.

_"Reow...?" _She questioned softly up at her brother over her shoulder.

Bast didn't respond with words. Only with sorrow. He'd been fighting on the wrong side, summoned by bastardized demonic rituals. She could see that now, and forgive him, as long as he didn't stand in her way.

"K... Kill the witch! She's enchanted the feline summon! K-kill her!" Came a terrified cry from one of the apes, and Ruby- that was her name she thought -sniffed in disgust. Filthy ungraceful creatures. But the female ones were friends. The males were enemies. She knew that. And they had to die.

All of them.

A small piece of wood flashed towards her and she swiped at it. Whatever it was fell into pieces at her feet as she stood, arms folded beneath her breasts. It felt strange to stand on her hindlegs but she knew it was right for some reason. Why was beyond her.

More of the small pieces of wood came flying at her but her brother slid his big paw in front of her and protected her. She frowned as she heard him groan lightly, but she nuzzled her head into the back of his paw, showing her appreciation. She had a kit to protect, and dodging those wooden pointies would have been difficult. Destroying their source however... Her eyes turned firm as she decided that these creatures had to be destroyed. Now rather than later, she thought. They were very annoying.

"Rwwwwrrr..." A low rumble echoed from the back of her throat, and she sprung. Teeth bared in a rictus snarl she leaped out from behind her brother's paws. The males seemed so very slow. Their startled appearance sung in her eyes as she rushed them. Watching them raise those things they held to slice their prey. Stupid apes... why didn't they just use their claws? She would show them how to eradicate vermin.

Checking hurriedly to make sure none of the females were in the way, she swung, and death followed as a twenty foot tri-flash of blue crystalline light cut a swath through the air and the flesh of her enemies with an equal ease. Her claws ripped through... how many was it...? Ah it didn't matter. Their death screams were boring. But there more to kill. These were enemies.

Vile enemies.

In a split second she threw her left arm and another crystal slice ruptured through more men, the claws cutting through legs, torsos, necks, or heads all depending on how tall the creatures stood. They all died the same, mouths wide in agony as veins were opened, intestines flung about and eyes sliced in two. Ahead of her lay an archway, the one her brother had entered through, and many men were over there, as if waiting in line for her to kill, but her brother was already going there. No. She would help the female apes.

Taking her time, she slipped her claws in, and men found themselves without their paws wherever she went. Women's jaws hung open as she flicked her claws and snatched Musk lives away from them. All so slowly it seemed to her, as if easy. Boring. She finished the Musk invaders off quickly and was disappointed in their prowess. These enemies had hurt her. Had destroyed her. Had destroyed her friends and her mate. She remembered these things and remembered a seething hatred for them that slowly built as her memories grew.

Abruptly, a scent caught her nose. It was small and distant, but she knew the scent. She knew it from her dreams. From shared experiences. From sleeping together with this person. This mate. This one she cared for. The one called lover...

...It was the scent of lover's blood, beyond the archway.

She bounded forward, darting between her brother's legs in worry, ignoring his own slicing, the spray of blood and the mens' boring screams, looking frantically around.

Why were all of these people in her way!?

Again she growled, a low sound that sent shivers down the spines of nearby Musk, but still they did not back away! Her mate was in trouble! Couldn't they see that they had to move? A blue solid light brimmed on the top of her paws- hands? -and suddenly lengthened, three sharp curved blades stretching away from her endlessly as she stared at the startled men not caring for them. They weren't moving. So she would _make_ them move...

* * *

Jai Alai was tired. Very tired. She was an elder but the three manacles on her wrists locked her power away quite sufficiently, making her merely a grunt. Once Ruby had found that the manacles _could_ be grown around she had done so quickly. It helped to know that there was a peak to reach, and if you could only overcome that you could use ki again. But it was like starting all over. She pushed with all her might and only got the reserves of a mere child.

It made her feel so pathetic, but she supposed Ruby must feel worse.

Catching her breath she looked down over the battlefield. Sunset had come and was ending quickly as the last of the day was slowly melting behind the horizon, trees of the forest to the west covering the city in shade. Jai Alai would have considered it beautiful under any other setting but now was no time to be watching a sunset. The cat had breached the walls and the boar was playing around at the segment of wall it had smashed out. The horde of men was thinning at least, now only filling the half of the valley closest to Kinagoda, leaving the northern half barren save for unmoving corpses and craters.

They were going to lose this battle. The ambush had failed spectacularly as a series of beams still rushed up to pummel the still standing turret of Su Li Din at the top of the city. The _only_ remaining turret. How the woman was still up there firing down on the Musk she would never understand. She was two hundred years younger than the old woman and it just wasn't fair that an old timer like that could have such energy.

She sighed, contemplatively trying to decide what to do.

She was stuck in the trees, having run back into the forest when she grew overwhelmed by the forces of regular Musk fighters. Phaw! Too pitiful to even handle five of ten axes... unskilled lot as well but they had been unwilling to leave pushing towards Kinagoda and follow her into the woods where picking them off would be simple.

"Fighting here anymore is useless..." She groused to herself in irritation and grief. Staring out into the sea of dead bodies she looked for anything moving. Anything that might be one of her fallen sisters. So few had survived... she'd seen so few. Little Aktaya-chan couldn't possibly have made it out of that. She swung that sword around the ease of someone who'd handled a blade for years but she was no soldier. Not yet... poor girl was probably lying in one of the craters with limbs missing...

Wouldn't be the first girl she'd seen too young for such a brutal death, but having met it anyway.

Sighing Jai Alai turned her eyes towards the gate and watched yet another deep red beam scorch down from Su Li Din's turret, this one aimed at the boar. It did little more than enrage the beast, its beam not hot enough to do any damage more than a light burst wound. It couldn't do damage anymore anyways. The grand elder's ki was running out.

Without warning a flash of blue streaked across the front of the gates. Another flash. Another. Jai Alai blinked trying to figure out what they were, or if they were just her mind playing tricks on her. Distant she was, but not so far that she couldn't make out the gates. And her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the entire semi-ring of men surrounding the gate seem to collapse to the ground. Like watching a card castle drop they fell lightly to the dirt, a sudden spray of red seemingly blotting them away for a moment. What in the...?

Another flash.

Another, these ones further still from the gates, but just as quick. Like watching a Chestnut Fist, or the crack of a whip: visible but only just. They arced through the mass of men seemingly effortlessly and with them another spray of red followed. Looking closer Jai Alai could almost make out the image of three parallel... claws? Or perhaps the spirit of claws emanating from... someone standing near the exit to the gates. Only the subtle lingering blue light, and the spray of red gave any indication that what she saw was really happening.

Looking closer, her jaw slowly dropped as she saw single person scampering over the piling mound of manflesh, slipping on the blood. The flashes of blue seemed an echo to the wild hand swipes the girl was making. Her fists moved with a speed that blurred even more than the blue slits ripping through the air. It was a person. A girl.

A girl... with gleaming red hair.

_"Ruby..." _She whispered in awe. _"It can't... be..."_

* * *

Twilight had descended upon the land, and that only made Ruby's eyes sharper still. She sniffed the air again, hunting. Each swipe cleared a path for her, but it only stayed clear for long enough for the damnable creatures to cover it again. She growled in her throat, and scampered, low, crouching to the ground. It felt natural, but at the same time awkward and clumsy. Still it served her current purpose better than the two legged stance. That was not helping at the moment.

She could taste the blood of men all around her, but somehow she could still pick out that important scent. That worrying scent of the knowledge that lover was injured, and she _had_ to help.

Pouncing forward landing on a man whose face was covered in fear and wariness, holding forth one of the sharp-and-pointies, she bounded off him into the air. Dodging the shafts of wood that seemed to fall like the rain from the wall behind her, she found her grounded target. Landing quickly, she bounced off another nameless face, and another, sniffing all the while. The scent was stronger.

Stronger...

There!

Landing, she took a mighty swipe and watched the men before her fall for only a passing moment, ignoring the spray of blood that flowed after her strike. Kicking with her hind paws she toppled the man she landed on and he fell into those behind her sending men dominoing back towards the gate. Not as good as killing them but it would do.

Her eyes scanned left and right, looking for the source of the scent, and in moments she spotted it. Her. Her lover was lying in a small crater crafted of a hoof print. A boar's hoof print. Diving, she scampered into the print an curled herself around the girl, nipping at her unconscious face. Why? Why wasn't lover responding? Why was lover so quiet? She was usually loud.

Men began to stand around her but she didn't care. Water came to her eyes and it was an uncomfortable sensation. She tried to wipe at it with her paws but more seemed to just flow to replace it. Despair crept into her tongue and she let out a mewling whimper. Repeatedly poking lover's head and finding no response. She examined the girl and could see strange things. The girl was _flatter_ that was normal. Her face scrunched in a way that seemed unusual. Her arms hung limply at her sides and her legs dangled lifeless.

Lifeless.

"What... what is she?" Came the voice of one the of two legged ones like her, yet not. The enemies.

"An Amazon demon..." A reply followed immediately.

Ruby was surprised she understood. She didn't care though. She didn't care what the enemy said about her. Lover wasn't waking up! Lover was bleeding.

Lover was...

Was...

Gone...?

Ruby saw red brighter than any she was named for. Red streaked through everything as she watched the narrow form of lover, still and lifeless. She stood, the tears still leaking down her cheeks. Lover was gone. Lover was gone and...

They would pay...

They would pay dearly... for taking her away.

She let loose a yowl of despair and hatred that shook the very moon...

* * *

Jai Alai could only stare in open mouthed wonder as the hailstorm of flashes erupted from the ground. A sea of blades, each moving in every direction at once, emanating from a single point somewhere near the middle of the battlefield. All across the plain they stretched, slicing up from the ground, sweeping out in large ninety degree swaths from the middle, and coming in downward strikes that sent earth flying up into the air. Everywhere a man was, a claw was there to cut him down.

She watched as the army dwindled and died.

Screams of terror melded into a mass of fear, no words sensible among the din of fleeing Musk and jeering amazons. The whisk of arrows falling into the backs of men not cleaved in two by the pit of blue swathes ripping the very land itself to shreds along with the invaders. Dirt and blood flew in rivers and waves and bodies piled at the gates of Kinagoda like a mountain of flesh.

In the distance she saw the dark cat god sink its teeth into the fleshy neck of the great boar, while more red beams burned the beast from Su Li Din's turret. The cat god had betrayed the Musk.

"Goddess be praised..." She murmured in awe, staring down at the all but dispersed Musk. "Goddess be praised."

* * *

Eventually the slices of claw-like ki dwindled and died. Amazons still fired arrows, those few still residing on the walls, and the elders still standing on the turrets sent what meager ki they could down to pick off any surviving Musk they could see through the depths of the night.

But as it became apparent that victory had been achieved, a cheer rose among the women. A cheer that could lift the spirits of the reaper himself and convince him to lay aside his long scythe.

Women, fighters each and every one tired from the day's long battle, ran with renewed vigor to chase the fleeing Musk in parties. Catching them and killing them in the hundreds as the men fled back to the north, trying desperately to reach their sacred valley.

The depths of night had crossed the land entirely and the only light provided was from the shaken moon and dim stars. Far to the north beyond the line of trees was where Eria stood. A scout was not the most useful tool once battle was already underway, but she was fast. One of the fastest there was. And killing fleeing men was not difficult when all it took was a simply throwing knife to the back.

Running hard through the trees, she suddenly slipped, almost falling on some slippery substance, but catching herself before an real damage could be done. Cursing herself, she stood as quickly as possible, looking every direction for a possible attack but found none. Wary and alone, she knelt down. Blood. She'd slipped on blood. What looked like _gallons_ of it, saturated the hard dirt below. Her eyes followed a slow path of the stuff, noticing that it left a trail leading deeper into the woods.

Withdrawing a second knife for her left hand, she stood and followed the trail. It did not take long to find the source, and Eria let loose a strangled gasp.

The red-haired girl. The only one to ever spot her, lay crouched low on the ground, covered head to toe in blood. The girl looked ridiculous, her belly swelled crouching on the ground like a cat with its tail up, hissing. She looked no more fit for battle than a mouse, but the blood drenching her begged to differ. The girl had been the savior of Kinagoda today. That she had seen. And she felt eternal gratitude to this slip of a girl. She, however, had not had been what caused her shock.

No...

The girl crept slowly in a circle as if unsure of what to do. Like a predator with its prey cornered but conscience denying it the feast it desired. For some reason... The red-head was growling heatedly at an unconscious figure lying brokenly against a tree. Scrapes lined the man's chest where his shirt had been mangled till it could hardly be called such. Pauldrons on his shoulders seemed chewed at the ends, golden lining once fine and strong, now damaged and useless, just as the ones on his elbows. Slices lined his body and legs everywhere in parallel lines as if cut by a cat. Yet even after all this, still the man was clearly alive as his ragged breathing sagged in over the girl's growling, glaring face.

Slowly, a grin crept across Eria the Scout's cheeks.

Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty himself lay at the mercy of the Amazons.

**End Chapter Ten**

**Author's Notes: **Whoa. The largest single chapter I've ever written, and if I do say so myself, by far the most epic. That was fun...

Happy New Years Eve!  
**  
**Note: I think my author's notes at the end of Anarchists implied that story was dead. **It is not.** In fact it's one of the furthest from dead that I/We have. So much so that I must apologize to those of you looking for any stories other than this one or Anarchists to continue, as I think I'm going postpone writing on any other story until Her War is completed. The new Wheel of Time book did not incite the enthusiasm I hoped it would for So Be It, Mark in the Lace, and The Last Day. The writing of that fic just feels too low of quality for me to continue it. Each day it grows closer to my pile of dead fics. So I think with this, expect more on only Her War or Anarchists from this point on. If my inspiration hits for a new fic, (or perhaps Rapture) well good show. But as of yet, it has not, and does not appear likely.  
**  
**Special thanks to send out for this chapter as there were a 'shit load' of things (I.E. Songs, Writers, and etc.) that inspired it. I know it isn't really, but it feels like the end to a massive part of the story. By far one of the most epic things I've ever written, plus over 27k words to boot.

Nods as always to Robert Jordan, in particular Far Dareis Mai, the Maidens of the Spear, who I'm subtly basing the Amazons off of a bit.  
Dynasty Warriors, because no other game simulates 'god of the battlefield' better than that one.  
The picture that inspired my vision of Aktaya (Link in profile)  
The _Kuchiyose no Jutsu_ from Naruto. (Figured that one would be kinda obvious.)

In no particular order:  
_Indestructible_ by Disturbed _  
Plenty of Grit _by Megumi Hayashibara _(Slayers)_  
_Rolling Star_ by Yui _(Bleach)_  
_Successful Mission _by Megumi Hayashibara. _(Saber Marionette J)_  
_Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, _by Beat Crusaders _(Bleach)_  
_Will _by Lisa _(Melody of Oblivion)_  
_Call and Answer _by Barenaked Ladies (Weird eh? This song actually was devoted to another chapter later to come but parts of it reached this one.)

Heh. Just a way to show people what boots my EPIC:/ Drive.  
_  
_Of course special thanks to Ozz and Markeriv as always. Also Tuisto and Bishamon.

_Last Remnant_ for being such a sucky game that it made me want to never play my xbox again, thus letting me turn to my computer.  
And a gigantic "Thank You and Go Fuck Yourself!" to _Probability and Statistics II_, for inspiring the rage that makes me want to burn the earth to cinders...

Ehehe.... You all know what that's like right...? Right?

Lastly, you readers for all your awesome feedback. I don't think any fic has been as well received as this one. I know it ain't perfect but hey. Its a passion. Glad you all get something out of it.

It seems I have a small bit of talent for artistry as I crafted a surprisingly good drawing of Ranma and Aktaya available on photobucket, also via a link in my profile. Another drawing will likely being coming up soon, but that one will contain a spoiler I'm not quite ready to give. So give it time.

This was the culmination of more inspiration than you can possibly imagine. You've probably just spent two to three hours reading it. Be a damned shame if I didn't grow for that. So I beg you all to **leave a review!** Seeing as a chapter of this magnitude will likely not be coming again for quite some time I hope you will all be kind and drop your two cents in the reviewing toll booth. It's free, easy, and makes a wonderful late Christmas present for yours truly.

Note: Get me 350 reviews and I promise I'll have the next chapter out before the end of January. Sound like a deal?

Till Next!

MB


	12. No One I Know

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, _many_ characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Eleven  
No One I Know**

_I find myself conflicted. I've stumbled upon this journal and, finding who it belongs to, leafed through. I contemplated showing it to Her but decided that perhaps it should be completed first. It may be somewhat rude of me but I find myself in the perfect place to continue where the previous writer left off. She... won't be writing any longer. To my great regret. I'd come to think of her as... a... Mother? Friend? _

_I don't know. _

_I know it hurts inside when I think of the previous writer... knowing that she died makes my insides feel strange in ways I scarcely understand. And since I'm to be practically bed ridden for the next two months, with child as I am, I will pick up where she left off. _

_It is the least I can do._

_The battle. Yes, that is a good place to begin. Terrible and incredible as it was, it was only the beginning of the things She would do. She hated me so, back then. And with good reason. But She didn't kill me. She could have, I'm sure. She had the chance. She was stronger than I could imagine. Stronger than anything I had ever faced. I felt like a ball of yarn being toyed with in Her hands. But She let me live. _

_She was a storm birthed by the onslaught of war, born under the star of mercy. She... made no sense. But then, I suppose she didn't have to.

* * *

_

Aktaya was shocked. And that was an understatement if ever she'd used one. Staring at the blushing girl across from her she blinked what felt like several hundred times.

"You're joking." She stated with a calmness she didn't feel. So _this_ was why Saiporu and Takuma had left them here. _Now_ the funny way they'd been acting made sense!

They were alone, she and Toya, sitting in an abandoned classroom as the sun slowly began to fall below the horizon, its red beams casting a warm and beautiful glow across the other girl's form that sent a blush down Aktaya's cheeks. The walls were highly unadorned, one side layered with windows showing the courtyard of the school a mere story below, but here and there a poster stood listing some silly high school creed or some worthless bit of grammatical lingo. A chalkboard, heavily marred by eraser marks that probably hadn't been washed in decades adorned the front of the room while in the back hung one of those dull clocks idly chipping off the hours.

The utter boring nature of the classroom was completely contrasted buy the red hue blossoming straight up Toya's and her own cheeks. The implications the girl had left...!

The girl shook her head in the negative, indicating that _no_ she wasn't joking. Her blushing cheeks reddening beyond even the hues the sunlight left on her tanned skin. Idly she poked her fingers together and her shoulders hunched in the cutest way...

"I... You...! But...!" Shock had stolen Aktaya's words. All this time the girl had thought that she was _that_ kind of girl...? Her own cheeks flushed. Well. She _was. _Old habits died hard it seemed, and indignation over being seen as 'odd' or 'strange' had still not been weened completely out of her personality. Aktaya's face slowly lost its stupor and she began to look back into her past. The overprotective way Toya had always acted around her. Defending her from harsh words. As any friend would have, never knowing that there had been more beneath.

Aktaya felt like an idiot. She was pained by the knowledge that she had never realized Toya was a lesbian. It was a small balm to know that the girl herself hadn't even admitted it until just a short while ago, but it still nagged at her. But now she understood why her gender change had upset Saiporu so much. Toya was into girls. Toya now seemed to be the laughing stock of the school because of it, and Saiporu had thought she was just another bastard of a boy. Some strange incident had occurred several months back in which Toya had come on to another girl and been shot down in the most public of ways. Aktaya felt a small bit of pity. But... very small. It was hard to feel sympathy for embarrassment when she was missing an eye.

Luckily, Aktaya's orientation could only be described now as bisexual at best. And even that didn't really explain her nature very well. But that twisted nature she had gained set her at ease with the other girl being attracted to her. So at east that she laughed in delight.

The poor girl flinched as if stung and lowered her eyes. Silly girls and silly crushes. Aktaya couldn't help but pity her friend, now. "I... I'm sorry if it, makes you uncomfortable. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it. Not a big deal right? I mean... you were kidnapped and tortured and turn into a boy and... and now you have to deal with some silly--!"

Aktaya interrupted the girl's babbling before it overbubbled and burned something. "Toya, if I weren't in a ridiculously complicated love triangle at the moment, I'd throw you down over that _horrible_ teacher's desk and kiss you senseless."

Toya blinked. Hard. Then a shiver crawled up her spine and Aktaya could see it travel up her body like a cold chill. The good kind.

"I-if _you like...?_" The girl insinuated in an uncharacteristically shy voice, that hid a demure lilt Aktaya had rarely sensed before.

To her great surprise Aktaya felt a slight warmth rise between her legs and a small layer of sweat trail down her lower back.

Did Toya just push her chest forward?

She _did!_

_Minx!_

Mentally Aktaya gave a slight shudder as a small litany flew through her mind. _'Tempt me not! Tempt me not!' _Finally however, she sighed. Her care for Ranma was stronger than this. Even her bond with her old friends paled in comparison to Ranma. And for... well... she still wasn't certain on the other front...

"Toya... there's more about me that I still haven't told you. I... I'm a mother. Cute little kid too. Gets a bit snippy if you don't feed him grapes though. Dummy little boy _loves_ them. And... well there's..."

"A _baby!?_" Toya interrupted quickly. "You've got a _baby!? _But you're--!"

"Raped." She stated firmly. "It was less than consensual."

"Oh my god... you... Taya-chan..." The girl spluttered. "I... I didn't, I'm so-!"

Aktaya grimaced at the pity in her friend's voice. Sure she'd been raped... _kind of. _Galm had taken her first and she and Veter had been hitched by the next time she'd lain with a man. Married in Musk form at least, and even though she'd barely known him, he'd made her enjoy the caresses he gave. Made her enjoy... Musk were _good_ at making their women submit, whatever anyone wanted to say about them. The worst pain she'd really felt during her captivity was that broken finger. And Marjoram's poles. The boar's hoof that had taken her eye, and still further injuries later had hurt far more than those.

"Hey. Its not a big deal. Trust me, there were others who had it a lot worse than I did... trust me..." Aktaya trailed off, her mind wandering to Ranma.

The girl put a cute finger to her lip covering the unsaid _'oh my' _hidden beneath her hand in innocence that Aktaya was admittedly a bit envious of. Still, the girl's words fit her tomboyishness in a sad sort of way. "I couldn't imagine... I... What's you child's name?"

Aktaya grinned. Toya had always been pretty good at detecting undertones and Aktaya was projecting a visible hailstorm of _"don't go there."_ The girl had changed the subject quite spectacularly, and chosen a particularly good one.

"I called him Tir. Tir Sovi. Heh, you remember don't you?" Aktaya asked, her voice filled with the questioning hopefulness. She may have lost her innocence but she'd gained a lot too. The dreams of a school girl who planned to name her child Tir before she'd ever had cause to fear men and war and death still shone through the cracks in her new personality. Some dreams do come true, if not in the way small school girls had wished.

Toya cocked her head. "Yeah." The girl giggled slightly. "My kid's name was gonna be Kotaba. I think Saiporu wanted Evise or something. And you..."

"I got the chance a little early." Aktaya grinned. "Hes just starting to walk now, and Ranma's ecstatic about getting him to throw punches. Says he's got a fighters instinct, unlike his father."

"His father... What... if I can ask, what happened to...?"

Aktaya's face took on a decidedly darker sheen. As memories of the man rose unbidden. Veter was a deviant for a Musk, in that he was ridiculously gentle with his mate. But even so, he still sought to enslave her mind, body, and soul. Looking back now, she felt grim satisfaction that Marjoram had killed him. "He's dead. Killed by a bigger bastard." She stated, flexing her fingers in anger.

Toya felt a sudden drop in the temperature and she could swear the neon glow of evening sunlight was dancing on Aktaya's skin. But that had to just be her imagination... "You... you've been through so much. You... just seem so different. I... remember a shy girl who laughed and loved her boyfriend and dreamed of getting married. Now... heh. Now you seem more of a tomboy than me!"

Aktaya smiled. Another swift change of subject.

"True enough. I've seen things you wouldn't even bele--!" Aktaya stopped mid-sentence.

Something was--!

Aktaya dived, crashing into Toya and sending her and several desks tumbling to the floor just in time to escape the sound of shattering glass at the windows. Tumbling to the ground on top of Toya, she was on her knees, crouching over the other girl in an instant.

"You okay?" She asked breathily in almost a whisper, turning back to view what had assailed them.

A javelin lay stabbed through the heart of the desk just behind where she'd been sitting. Glass shards from the shattered window lay scattered everywhere, along with a small flurry feathers fluttering on the breeze wafting in through the ruined wall frame.

"God no..." Aktaya stood slowly, dreading what she already knew stood outside waiting for her. "You... can't have followed me... Not here..."

Her fingers lightly touched the fletching on the end of the javelin. Feathers attached to the ends to make spears of their like fly true. A weapon the phoenix had mastered centuries ago. Aktaya felt her blood run cold as she turned to look out the window. Standing atop the fence a story below and a hundred meters away stood two figures. Each with white, heavy wings.

"A-Aktaya...?" Toya stuttered, staring up at the other girl from the floor.

Toya could never explain what she saw the other girl do. Reaching over the top of her head, she watched Aktaya grab for something that was not there, and pull. From somewhere... from _nowhere_ a sword seemed to slide out of a sheath crafted of pure camouflage. Massive, standing at least as tall as the one-eyed girl, Toya watched her shorter friend as she lobbed the blade with one hand and swung her arm in an arc parallel to the ground cutting at the windows...

...and the entire wall burst forth, glass and wood and concrete all shattering outward in a vertical earthquake, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the Toya's homeroom, staring out into the open red rays of falling dusk. Toya watched and could not believe, as she saw rubble crumble to the ground.

"Th...the entire wall..." She whispered, staring in shock. "W-What did you _do!?_"

But when she turned to look, Aktaya was no longer there. A slight flash on the edge of her vision was the only clue she had, and she followed it, eyes settling upon the figure of her once best friend, leaping from a second story floor to land on the ground below, facing the winged figures.

_'Sh-she just jumped...!' _Toya's eyes spanned the distance from the ground below to her current height, replaying the scene in her mind.

Toya could only gape at the missing wall in horror. Creeping warily to the edge staring at pieces of concrete and the hole where bits of the floor had been ripped up, she could see into the school room below.

Out on the field against the background of falling red sunset her friend, and a girl she would once have been overjoyed to call 'lover' stood with her weapon's edge sliding steadily along the grass. Even with the unusual stance, she held herself ready, as if blood were about to be spilled that very minute.

At the sound of the two winged-men's laughter, Toya tensed, in fear of what was to come.

* * *

"No you idiot!" Were the first words Akane heard, spoken heatedly at the balding man on the center of the dais. Ranma's voice but dripping with so much venom that she hardly recognized it. "For the thousandth time, _NO!" _

"But, Empero--!" The voice abruptly guttered as Akane witnessed that heated glare Ranma had developed turned on the old man. Honestly, she could sympathize with the geezer a bit, having been on the receiving end of that glare but only once. The sheer scale of anger Ranma could exude had horrified her then. Even now she was a bit put off by it.

Ranma had definitely changed from the boy she'd once known. And that was good, she thought. Had he been the same brash egotistical jerk he had once been, Akane probably would have found herself falling in love with him again. But now...?

As if she was meeting a brand new person with the face and name of someone she had once loved, Ranma had become some untouchable force that she could hardly understand. At times, when she was present at meetings with the council of the Communist Party of the City States of New China, as it was formally called, she would see this angry man who was so frustrated he wanted to blow the whole building up.

A man with the power to back up that urge, should he wish it.

And then she had seen Ranma with his children. Young Illi, Xian Pu's sister. Tir, the boy child of a long-dead Musk, and a girl they had yet to meet, whom Ranma claimed loved him. Then there was the soon-to-be-born daughter Ranma had mentioned in passing. Akane wasn't even sure if the Ruby Empress had noticed when she'd spoken but Akane had made sharp note of the fact that despite all the changes, Ranma had never rid himself of the love triangles. At least that never changed.

But Ranma, as a father _or_ as a mother, was one of the most kindhearted souls she had ever seen. A father for his adopted children that Akane admitted she wished she could find in her own layabout parent. A mother that she hoped she could measure up to. The redhead was caring to her last breath, with a touch as gentle as a feather and words to soothe a child's tears, smiles to warm a people's hearts. The raven haired man of a father in him could inspire and encourage families who had never even met him with the same grace and ease that he could push his daughter to try her very best at learning the ways of Anything Goes. Neither of those traits were at all gender specific, of course. He was just as inspiring as a woman and just as caring as a man, but the separate traits seemed to stand out more based on her current form. Curious that.

It was... miraculous really. Who would have thought _Ranma_ would become so... well... dammit. She could admit it. He was attractive.  
_  
"God dammit!"_

Well... when he wasn't so angry at least.

"Tibet is NOT a part of China; for the last _fucking_ time, we are _not_ annexing it! Have you not seen enough war, man?" Akane heard Ranma's words punctuated by a sharp fluctuation of red aura that scalded the curtains of the window behind him. They were quickly and effortlessly doused by a pair of men who seemed to be waiting upon Ranma's beck and call with water permanently on hand.

"I... I just thought... No. No Emper--"

Abruptly a bucket of water slipped out of one of the two attendants hands and landed on the floor. The water erupted out from the bucket as soon as it hit the ground, reaching at an impossible angle to purely drench Ranma, effectively shifting him from the dominating visage of his male form to the dominating visage of his female form.

"--ress." The man finished lamely with an idle chuckle that was accompanied by more than one of the men and women present.

Ranma gave a sigh, and then let a grin spread across her own face. "Almost a year now and you still can't stop laughing at this, can you Matio...?" Ranma stated, turning his eyes to another man, a military man dressed in full uniform sitting in the semicircle with about twenty others, and Ranma seemingly at the head. It was a round table but somehow, Ranma still seemed to be at the head of it.

Matio, the man in question, merely smiled at the red-head. Instead a woman, one of few in the room answered. "It is a very humorous... condition, Empress Ruby."

Ruby's grin widened. "Watch it, Saizu. I could give my curse to this entire assembly just to make it less humorous."

Several of the men gulped, and stretched their collars in nervous shivers but Saizu merely laughed. "I could use the authority of a male voice, Your Eminence."

Ranma's eyes immediately grew concerned. "You have it, don't you?" He asked. "I thought I told you, your opinions matter just as much to me as--!"

"Yes, Empress Ruby. You have, many times. It... is still strange to know that my words truly carry weight now. I didn't mean to imply any lack of fairness since the beginning of your reign. Forgive me." The midnight black-haired girl stated with a subtle bow of her head.

The room was a large chamber, with a ceiling far too tall to be practical to anyone. But it had become an assembly room for the key members of the great group of people Ranma had assembled to try to craft a reborn nation out of this ramshag of a country. Akane had only met one or two of the members so far, and none of them had much interested her. Truth be told, Akane could scarcely think of anything but the baby growing within her, and Mousse's continued silence in regards to the issue.

That was actually what she was here for. Ranma was a mother, and she wanted advice. From...

From a very good friend.

"How many times to I need to tell you to stop being so damn formal Saizu?" Ranma asked, rhetorically at this point as the smirk that shimmered on the black haired woman's face clearly broadcasted her amusement. "Okay... so, Food and Rations are going well. Most of the parents and children have been reunited, emissaries have been sent to Russia and India, and we're still not invading Tibet." The last was stated with a slight glare at one of the older men. "There anything else we needed here, or can we call this a night?" Ranma said glibly with a glance over at Akane. The redhead winked at her and Akane blushed a little.

A round of noncommittal agreement murmured through the room as tired legs were stretched in expectation of freedom after the long meeting. Ranma too stretched and then stood. "Well, this meeting is over. Until tomorrow then."

Akane waited patiently by the door as the men an women filed out of the room, most of them talking in rather dull and tired, yet cheerful conversation. It seemed it had been a long, yet productive day. Ranma however, waited in her ornate throne-like chair, having sent her two water attendee's away after one of them had fetched her a white towel. Akane couldn't help but chuckle herself as Ranma dabbed her hair and clothes with it. "Well, you seem busy."

Ranma gave a pleasant smile, moving the towel down to her breasts and scrubbing at the robe covering them with hardly a care for the bounce she induced. Yes. This was still Ranma.

"And you look troubled." The red-head replied congenially.

Well... maybe _this_ Ranma was a deal more observant than his two years gone counterpart. But that was actually helpful. It got her onto the topic she'd come here for in the first place. "I... suppose I am."

Ranma gave her a questioning look. Cheerful, she seemed to be in a good mood.

"I... I wanted to know about your child. Your children. They... I--"

"You're pregnant and you want advice?" Ranma interrupted nonchalantly.

Akane blinked. "Uh... yeah. How'd you know?"

Ranma waved lightly. "Aura. It's readable."

"Really?" Akane asked.

Ranma's smile widened as he stood from his chair and walked towards her, dropping the towel across the arm of the throne. "Well, I suppose I can tell you. I've got two kids and a third on the way. Only one of them is actually mine... but hopefully I can help. Lets see. It all started..."

**"...about a year and a half ago."**

* * *

The room was dark. Sinister one might even call it, but the light seeping in from the cloudy, overcast sky gave it more of a dreary look. Ornate statues and pillars held up this mighty room. It was tall, some might say unnaturally so, but there was a purpose to that height. Though it hadn't been used for that purpose in centuries, it would be once again in the near future.

Grey stone made up the interior whilst the ceiling was adorned with magnificent chandeliers crafted of ivory. Ivory granted by Jusenkyo, the spring of drowned elephant. The statues were of animals, hundreds of differing types all standing tall and stark still in their casts of iron or crystal. They were gravestones, each dedicated to a brave Musk warrior who had died in this battle or that over the past thousand years. Many of whom had been Tsingtao's personal soldiers at one time or another. Soldiers who had impressed him greatly.

Todone Slytunder would be gaining a statue of an eagle here upon his death. The man had run nonstop clear from the battlefield of Kinagoda to the valley of the Musk without fail or fault to bring him news of the battle. He'd done so with an arrow in his heel, and missing an arm. An impressive soldier indeed. If he lived through his injuries, he would never wear the uniform of a common foot soldier again. No. Bravery and a steel will like that deserved an army beneath it. Perhaps not a large army. He _was_ of the lions after all. Prideful creatures lions. Every now and then they thought they could overgrow the station they'd been given, infringing upon the rightful rule of Dragons. Yes. A small army would do. Five thousand. No more.

Still the fervor with which the news had been brought did nothing to ease the terrible taste said news had left in his mouth. On the one hand he was in a good mood. Surprisingly good. Both the battle city and the farming city had been routed by the rabble of his army, which said great things for the well trained army he had prepared for his attack on Joketsuzoku. He'd honestly expected them to do no better than breach the walls of Tsukigezoku let alone for the campaign to bring down _both_ cities. Sure the army had been destroyed, but that mattered little. A ragtag little bunch of half trained soldiers, most more loyal to his son than to him had been wiped out and taken far more ground than he would have believed. Luckily, Mace's loyalty was unquestioned. The boy was a good son, and had Herb not been born, would have surely been his successor.

If he ever needed one. His father had died long into his youth and he'd forgotten the average life-span of his people. Few people recorded their age when they died and he only had personal records from family members before his time. Autobiographies. He was broaching six hundred and his youngest son looked older than he.

None could question his power though.

The army decimating Kinagoda and Tsukigezoku had been a massive boon to his war effort. He'd thought the Amazons would be stronger, especially since he had lost the element of surprise. They'd grown lax in the years between war it seemed. So for that, Tsingtao's mood was brightened. However, one sterling silver problem remained.

His son had been taken. Herb had taken command of Mace's ragtags when Mace had been bested- and _lived_ -by Su Li Din. But Herb however, had not left the battlefield as he was told. The boy was far too sentimental. The form Jusenkyo had chosen to give him curdled his wits and twisted his thoughts to the point that Tsingtao wanted to throttle the poor boy.

But that wouldn't do. Good fathers didn't choke their sons...

...Much.

Still, the itch in his fingers had been there ever since the boy had let the Ruby... no _Ranma, _escape. That name _'Ruby'_ had become a preemptive epithet; it turned his peoples' bellies to gell and their iron hard hearts to wood. Soft wood.

But the boy was his son, and now he would be subject to tortures and interrogations that would leave a lesser man weeping. Despite their eccentricities he'd always loved his sons. He was hard pressed to fight the tears brought on by the death of Marjoram rising in his mind. Or poor little Borage. It was a good thing the boy had finally figured out how to cure himself. He was probably nearing mystic Jusenkyo by now...

But Tsingtao could not lose another son. Not after Marjoram. It might kill him to lose Herb, too. And nor could he afford to end his war. His ambition. The craft of a hundred years of planning and more, secretly building his forces. Hosting small side wars to make the Amazons think they were dominant. Building. Breeding his army.

Five hundred years he had gone without sons, fearing that one of those sons would rise to claim his head as he had done to his own father. But the draw of age, while not visible in him, showed on his marred and lonely heart. And so, in reverence to the God of the Hunt, he'd taken a doe and dunked her in Jusenkyo's fabled waters. And from her birthed Mace, eighty years gone now. Not of purely dragon heritage Mace grew old before Tsingtao's eyes as if in a blink. Twenty years and Mace looked the older of he and his father.

A soft, gentle heart, and a fine attunement to the ways of the woods, backed by the blood of the dragons. Mace could be harsh and merciful. Cruel and Kind. He was a flavor of every color...

...And not the son Tsingtao had expected. He treasured the boy, but he was not the one Tsingtao wanted to carry on if he ever did meet an unfortunate end. And so birthed Marjoram, his next female being changed from a snake. He'd wanted someone as clever as he. Someone to plan battles with. Someone able to make sense of the complexity of his eternal plan. And Marjoram had been clever. _So_ clever.

But the boy had no passion for battle. No drive to rule, even after teaching him all through his youth. No. The snake became obsessed with his potions, and concoctions. And most of all, women. More specifically torturing them. He loved that blank stare they gave him when they'd finally been broken. Tsingtao understood breaking a schaat, hateful creatures that they were, and he did it when necessary. But he did not revel in it as his son had done. In the end Marjoram had been the only son he'd had cause to fear. One never knew when the boy might craft a draught strong enough to kill even the blood of dragons.

Luckily, his lack of ambition to rule kept Tsingtao from fearing overmuch. Still, Marjoram was also a disappointment. Had _been_ a disappointment. What could Tsingtao have done wrong? The boy was clever yes. More so than Mace had ever had a care to be. But the boy was _weak. _Ah. That must be the error.

So Tsingtao traveled. A strong creature. A creature the gods had crafted to overpower all others. And he came across a rhinoceros. An indomitable creature of power. Ah! This one would surely give him the son and friend he'd so desired.

Alas, again he would fail. Borage had been strong. At first it seemed that the boy's strength would outmatch even his own. But at some point during his childhood, he'd stagnated. Though his arms grew larger and larger, his ki grew no bigger. Borage was... crippled it seemed.

Tsingtao remembered the sorrow he'd felt when it became certain beyond doubt that his next son had been a failure as well. Resentful and spiteful, Borage took after Marjoram. Just because he was not as strong as Tsingtao wished did not mean he had no passions. He had no mind for the battlefield. No care for the war. But he shared Marjoram's interest in the schaats. And so he'd become the Master of the Kennels, birthing more Sons in his short life than any man Tsingtao had ever met. And killing them of course. It wouldn't do to have spare dragonlings running around, even if they were halfbreeds.

On the edge of despair, Tsingtao decided. A son of his own caliber. Of his own merit. A son of dragons and dragons alone.

Far and wide he'd searched, feeling the land for the blood of his blood. The dragons were an old and private race, and in all his travels he'd only found one. Aghromaana.

With that battle he'd been forced to summon the breadth of his power, the ends of his wits, and the depths of his cunning. A battle that scorched the countryside, twenty years gone. Charred husks of trees still stood where they'd carved a molten path across the mountains, on a slow traverse back towards Jusenkyo. Human against dragon. Might of man clashed against the wisdom and power of ages untold. To this dragon he was a pup. A toy to be played with. And the dragon played...

...To its peril when after all its playing, it found itself in the body of the most beautiful schaat Tsingtao had ever seen.

The girl had been struck dumb with her human form, once he had finally led her to Jusenkyo, and Tsingtao's pride had swelled. He'd bested one of the true dragons. Turned her human and slapped manacles about her wrists, while splashing her with the Chiisuiton before she could even understand what had happened.

She was the only woman who had never broken. Not even Ruby could compare. For unlike humans, the dragon had no care for others. No desire to keep friends alive. No. Only pain could break the dragon, and pain was insufficient for the task.

He had given the dragon purpose though. After many years of training, and after his son had been borne from her, he had given her the freedom she deserved, with one condition. She had to best him. He had unlocked her curse and granted her the chance for revenge that she had sought all those long years of her captivity.

And she had lost that battle. And he had won, claiming the greatest prize of all with that victory... The dragons were not dead... not yet...

Herb had been superb. A genius in the arts of battle, and powerhouse who would only grow stronger with age. Clever as none but Tsingtao himself, with a passion for the art of war and the subtle distaste for breaking schaats that he himself held. The boy grew up with the same hatred towards woman that burned in Tsingtao. The same desire to dominate and control, and the same ambition, along with a breadth of love for his father only eclipsed by Mace.

He was the perfect son.

Until Jusenkyo...

Jusenkyo... that trip to Japan with his bodyguards. Meeting the Ruby. All of it had changed Herb. Changed him so much that Tsingtao didn't understand the boy anymore. Made him think perhaps Herb was contemplating betrayal.

As much as that thought stung though, he could no more stop loving his son than he could stop the sun from rising. The moon from shining. His fingers could make the earth dance, geysers rise from miles beneath the ground and volcanoes erupt at his footsteps...

...But not even dragons could not touch the sun.

"Magesty." Came a sharp tongue. Uri. His second in command. The blood of drakes flowed through his veins letting the man age almost as long as he himself. He didn't carry it as well though, looking to be about the age of a forty year old Musk. "News."

Straight and to the point. A good liegeman, Uri. Not to mention a genius on the battlefield, if not quite so good at tactics as he himself.

"Tell me." Tsingtao replied tartly.

"We knew that the wenches destroyed the garrison at Kinagoda but we didn't know what or who. You're eagle-man stated and I quote "like a sea of blue slices seeming to rip the army to pieces from the inside out." We knew how they were killed."

_"And...?"_ Tsingtao drawled, already bored. What matter how that bunch of idiots were killed? They more than completed their task with Tsukigezoku. Just rabble was worthless, but enough rabble had greatly eased the battle for him later. Some Amazon had a ridiculous overkill attack that wiped them out no doubt.

"Now we know _who_. Sir... it... it was the Ruby." Uri stated, with only a slight stutter to his voice.

Tsingtao remained silent for a moment. Contemplating. Then he smiled.

Ruby had reached the end of the board. Instead of a pawn, now she stood a tall and proud rook. But what would the Amazons do when their rook began attacking their own pieces? Tsingtao gave a long, hearty, laugh, pure delight filtering through it.

He'd just gained checkmate. All that was left to do was wait, and watch the Amazons burn...

* * *

The white painted walls of the room gave a cheerful look to the small building Matoko sat within. She was tired, but then, all fourty eight people sitting in the room were surely just as tired from the long treck. The city of Kinagoda had been ruined completely, but they had reached Joketsuzoku with little trouble.

This room was a waiting room where the Healing elders held the most intensely wounded. Hundreds of tents and cabins had been built in the wake of the destruction of Kinagoda to house all of the wounded, yet this one housed the greatest of them all. True, the room held fourty eight people. But outside, the line of well wishers and visitors stretched for almost a mile across the great city.

"It's been three days now... are you... are you sure she's going to be wake up?" Motoko questioned lightly. "I mean... Is she still... uhm..." Motoko's voice trailed off into a dull clamor as she realized Teriga, the elder healer was ignoring her again. Frustrating woman but underneath that gruff exterior Motoko was convinced there was a light and smiling heart hidden.

"Yes yes. She'll wake, I assure you." Teriga answered in that harsh voice of hers, but not to her, instead preferring to talk to the mass at once. "And yes. She's still glowing."

_'Still glowing,' _Mokoto thought with a twitch. _'Its just so... eerie.'_ The girl sighed running a hand through her shining blue hair. She wondered if the elder thought the same as she did about Ruby's strange glow, but she had a debt. A debt she could never repay to a girl who was barely even an Amazon. A _medic_ at that. A _pregnant medic!_

...But a heroine to make the skies weep in envy of her brilliance.

She still vaguely remembered seeing that angelic face hovering above her. The pain of feeling the arrow yanked from her leg. The taste of dried sweat on the girl's back. The smell of burning ki and battle. That wonderful smile that never touched the eyes crafted from solidified determination. She remembered being dragged for miles until she was laid gently into a wagon with all the care of a mother for her child.

Mokoto was an archer, and she wore her seal with levity. She was proud of her position, and for being so young, she was among the top tier of Kinagoda's archers. All her years of training had made her one of the very best.

It had not mattered a wick. All her skill. All the skill of her sisters, and the elders. All they'd worked for their entire lives would have ended three days ago if not for Ruby. Her mother, Takoto had not survived. Her father and younger brother were still grieving, and had not come to visit Ruby today. Weak hearted men, but she loved them still. She felt sorry for them. It must hurt so much more to be unable to disguise your emotions. Put them away as the Amazons had taught her to do. Men did not have such talents... their weaker hearts left them vulnerable to the hopeless grief that would surely have made her a sobbing baby, were she not a warrior. A woman.

Still, her power paled. Her achievements paled. And Ruby, her newfound heroine shined above all...

...If only she would wake up.

Motoko sighed again and glanced around the room. A makeshift waiting room for those who wished to visit the Ruby. And the room was quite full. Women who had never even met the girl. Who had no relationship with their hero other than the knowledge that they had been rescued and it had been this bloodbath of a girl who had dirtied her soul to keep them alive. It was a simple thing to tell those apart from those who had met her. Those who had been in contact with her. Been saved by her as she had been.

The fallen Elder Jai Alai who's manacles held her away from her true potential was a sad story on its own, but the old woman was here every day for more than half the day.

That sad story however, was counterbalanced equally by the whispers of Chell. The broken warrior whose spirit rose on the tails of the Ruby's charisma. After five _years_ of imprisonment the woman had escaped to become a true amazon once more. The woman's story was happy, but at the same time, just as sad as the elder's. Chell's daughter was still in Musk hands. So young... Yes. Chell was a legend in her own right as none had survived the Musk's tortures so long. None who had done so had remained sane anyway...

Motoko's eyes couldn't help but run across the green-haired beauty, and the small tear trailing down the other woman's fabled cheek. Still emaciated from her long captivity, her face was as well known as Su Li Din's in the city. Perhaps even more recognizable than Ruby's, though only because of her unnatural thinness and striking demeanor.

That and the Ruby hadn't truly been seen by the members of Joketsuzoku. People of the capital didn't understand... they still couldn't believe how a _medic_ could have done all these marvelous things. But she had... oh she had... and it had been _spectacular. _

The faces here were proof enough of that.

Wyn Decs. People spoke of her though not nearly as much as the flaming hair of the Ruby, but she had her own stories. The one Ruby had trusted her weapons to when in captivity. The girl who had saved hundreds from the kennels, silencing the traitors as she freed captured Amazons to lead the great Musk Exodus as it was slowly being called. Shining, yet short yellow hair on a young face, the fighter was sitting here too, waiting... Hoping...

Stories traveled. Rumors spread everywhere. There were others who's names had grown. Those who had been saved. And those who had been slain...

Lao Min. A very young girl, with black hair had translated Ruby's words during the Exodus. She too stood here, her back leaned against a wall examining people just as Motoko herself was.

Whispers of the dead son of the Musk kingdom. Marjam or something. Few knew his name. He'd been an interrogator of sorts, but more importantly, one of the King's sons. Killed by the Ruby. Another son, also a torturer. Rumors of his castration spread like flames licking the fringes of peoples doubts and spreading hope and joy along with their gruesome message.

So many stories in one room. So many stories... It made her wish for her pen and scrolls. Before she'd dropped her glasses and her ink in favor of a bow and arrows, she had considered herself a scholar. But she had to put that away. Until the war was done. An amazon had duty, and she would fight with her sisters until her last breath. As was said, as long as a drop a blood remains, the Amazons stand.

Ruby had touched so many people. Her eyes trailed to her friend, sitting right next to her on the small booth they'd managed to secure before the line of well wishers stretched out the door this morning. Her best friend... Aidlem sat next to her, her hands still wrapped in white where her fingers had been severed in the battle for Kinagoda. But she was alive. Bless the goddess they both were alive. All thanks to Ruby.

"Come on, you and... you two... come on." Teriga stated, pointing her finger randomly at Chell, Aidlem, and Mokoto.

Mokoto stood alongside Aidlem and Chell, and followed with a deep smile on her lips. Turning to Aidlem, they nodded to each other. They had a debt. All of Kinagoda had debt. And they would repay it.

* * *

Ku Lon of the Amazons was more well known than almost any other. As she entered the gates of Joketsuzoku, her beloved and sacred home, she heard a cheer rise among her fellow Amazons, and it warmed her heart in a way she had hardly felt since her son-in-law had died. The sun shown brightly in the chilled air, a warm calm before distant clouds would let loose their rains or possibly even snowflurries in the nights to come.

Ku Lon hated the winter in the way that a weed might hate a gardner, or a chicken might hate a butcher. Winter took things from her. Winter had stolen her daughter when she had been a young woman of thirty six, long over a century ago when the fool girl had fallen into a river on an insane lone hunt. Pride came, and the fall surely came afterwards. Even after so many years, Ku Lon could never forget them. The faces of her children. Her children's children... The only thing that truly gave her the reason to not weep at the memories were the children who still lived. So few remained... Xian Pu, her only great granddaughter, was no longer prideful at least. She was... no longer herself. Even Mousse no longer was no longer pursuing her. He'd lost his enthusiasm for Xian Pu, when the girl had closed in on herself.

Mousse had tried _everything_ to get the purpled haired girl out of her morose depression, as had Ku Lon herself, but nothing could pull her back from the brink. Worse, when the bells of battle sounded, the girl refused to return. Nothing would make her come. And Ku Lon feared the girl might be nearing suicide to follow her dead husband.

That terrified her. She'd lost a granddaughter, along with a yet unborn great grandaughter in only the past five years. Chell. She still missed her so... That didn't include the countless Amazons she'd grown to love and seen die over the years. Xian Pu was just as special. Just as warm as her own daughters. She would do _anything_ to keep the girl alive. But it seemed that the only _anything_ she could do that helped, was... _nothing._

Joketsuzoku could not be forgotten. Her home for countless years. She could not abandon her home... not for the pity of her widowed great granddaughter. Word had spread to her that Kinagoda and Tsukigezoku had fallen into the hands of their eternal enemies. With any luck, her presence alone would hearten her sisters, and rally their spirits. For she was Ku Lon of the amazons. Student to Su Li Din, and the most powerful Elder the Amazon's had ever known.

Hah hah. If only Son in Law had known. She'd only shown him the tip of the iceberg... but he could have surpassed even her. If he'd only had the time... If only the Amazon's society were not so prejudiced towards men. No. Best not to think about that. Those dead and gone needed to remain buried in memory as surely as they were buried in the earth. Their dream had come to an end, and it was time to let the past die.

Regret was worthless. Revenge, however, was the sweetest taste an Amazon could guzzle. She would have her revenge for the boy she would have called 'son.' Prince Herb of the Musk would be _destroyed. _With the goddess as her witness, and may she perish if it were not so.

Ku Lon was idly aware that her emotions were running a bit out of check, as evidenced by the plants shriveling up into ashes in her wake, but that was to be expected. Her mentor, and teacher for the past hundred years, Su Li Din, had been injured in the last battle. Not by an enemy, of course, but from overexaustion. It was little surprise to Cologne. No one could best Su Li Din. No matter how many mice scurried over the ridges, they could never topple the mountain. Only the slow advance of time could wither away it's sharp peaks.

_"Ku Lon Returns! By the Goddess! Ku Lon has returned to us!" _

_"Ku Lon! Ku Lon!" _

She could hear her name from all around, and it felt wonderful. The Amazons needed a leader. Someone to rally behind, and her mentor, while more powerful than she, was too old for the task. Su Li Din had never enjoyed leading, rallying her sisters to battle. But she was the strongest, and she had borne the responsibility. Ku Lon was different. Ku Lon _wanted_ to lead. To show the Amazons what a _true_ leader could do. Their councils and their bigotry was the work of fools, but it took more than the efforts of one woman to change the views of other old women. They would never grow to believe as she had. They still thought men could be little better than pack animals. If only Ranma had lived, she could have _shown _them! Finally made them see...!

But now was not the time for lost causes. Now was the time for battle. Her people were in war. They had to survive before changing their ways mattered. And from the reports scouts had brought her, the campaigns had not gone well. Kinagoda had destroyed the army besieging it, but at the cost of the walls, and more than half of the buildings in the boar and feline Summonings' final rampage.

"Elder Ku Lon! It's so good to have you back with us!" Came an exclamation from an elder whom Ku Lon hated with a passion. Previously she had believed the other woman had hated her just as passionately, so it was understandable that the old woman gave a startled blink.

"Cheguo?" Ku Lon questioned, wondering if this was really the same woman she remembered. "Cheguo, the Liontamer," as her full title pronounced her, was a greedy old bat. The woman was devious and jealous beyond reason, knowing her place in the list of most powerful amazons was far from the first. Far in particular from Ku Lon's whom she had once been wonderful friends with, more than a hundred years past. Age and jealousy had hardened her into a whip crafted of wooden spikes.

Or it _had. _Ku Lon sensed not one whit of that malice in Cheguo's voice now.

"Yes, old woman. You haven't gone batty yet. I still hate you." The Liontamer stated plainly, gesturing wildly with her hands to emphasize the point. "But I am an Amazon, and the hour is dire. I'm no fool as to turn away the might of the greatest Amazon who yet lives. Welcome home, Sister."

Ku Lon frowned. The war was truly faring so badly? They had crushed the Musk in hundreds of skirmishes over the past two decades. Now their two main cities bar Joketsuzoku itself had fallen to the Musk's sudden, unbelievable numbers. If Cheguo was turning a blind eye to the feud between them then the situation was truly dire indeed.

"I cannot believe the war is as bad as the rumors i've heard. The scouts report deaths but they do so with a smile, and thoughts of gleeful vengeance. Were there _no_ survivors from Tsuki, or Kinagoda?" Ku Lon asked with a poignant cock of an eyebrow.

"There... were... yes. Tsuki was obliterated, but the men and children lived. Kinagoda though... Well, we will get to that. For now, I have wonderful news for you sister."  
Cheguo told her, still flourishing her hands about like some... _lion tamer _or something.

"What?" Ku Lon asked, plainly irritated.

"You're Granddaughter, Ku Lon. Chell. She lives." Cheguo stated with no small amount of reverence for that fact.

Ku Lon's jaw dropped. In the past forty years or so, practically nothing had truly surprised Ku Lon of the Amazons. The true uniqueness Ranma had presented had been one of those things. But she had weathered the deaths of numerous daughters and granddaughters. She was hard as the mountains in her heart. But the thought of a daughter, long dead, returned to her...? Such a thing had never happened before. And Ku Lon felt the emotion of an overjoyed mother for the first time in so long she could hardly remember.

"T-take me! Take me to her!"

* * *

_  
'What am I...?' _Ruby thought.

Her bones were weary. Her eyes were incapable of opening. Her lips immobile. But she was... aware in a sense. Her body felt the damages of thousands of cuts, most likely from the underbrush she had torn through, but surely just as many came from the blades of enemies. Enemies she'd killed.

But the worst part about it all was that she remembered it...

...all of it.

_'How could I...?' _Her questing mind begged of her._ 'I'm not a murderer. I'm not... not like this.'_

Never before had she recalled the results of entering the cat fist. Shock was the only word that could describe it. Shock and terror. She was horrified at what she had been capable of. How? How could she possible have caused so much death? _'Ultimate technique indeed...'_

"Ruby...? Please.... please say something! Anything..." Chell begged outside the confines of Ruby's thoughts, hope clearly fading on her face with each passing day. Ruby could not find it in her to reply. Her eyes were open... awake and unseeing, their sight trapped endlessly in the void of her mind. Trapped as she had been for an eternity.

Through Ruby's mind again flashed the images of a thousand faces. Each one more clear than the last. Each one dying... their body parts severed. Their heads removed. Or their arms. Eyes clawed out. Bodies rent in two by the cleaves of her claws...

Her soul ached and her heart bled with guilt bearing down on her like a thousand tons on the back of the tiniest ant. She felt so small...

_'I killed them. Just... killed them all! What right did I have?' _

Her conscience struck her, its hypocritical tone sending shudders through her spine. _'Oh, _now_ you feel guilty? What about the guards you killed? You felt no horror at slaying them. Threw little poles at them and slit their throats without a second thought. What changed _'Ruby'?' A voice inside her spoke. A male voice she had long thought dead. A remnant of Ranma, returned to plague her.

Heat entered her veins and she felt the burning need to defend herself. Even as she did the green depression beneath her skin swirled with an added mix of red. _'That was different!'_

The inner voice didn't have to say anymore as the images of what she had done waved before her like a banner. Thousands of men she'd never known. Men with sons... wives, be they willing or not. Men, who may have been as good as their society could have raised them to be.

Men whose lives she had ended, for no more reason than that they stood in her path.

She could hear the visitors before her, her head lying dismally on the pillow she'd been provided, but she could not respond. Her guilt made her comatose... her fingers wouldn't move. Her fingers... her slaying, blood-slathered fingers did not _deserve_ to move. She saw, but didn't see. Her eyes were adrift in a sea of bodies.

"Ruby... please, my dear child, speak! My heroine, my daughter, my sister! I would hear your voice... _please..._"

At the fringes of her awareness, Ruby knew Chell was crying, but all she could think about was how little she deserved those tears. She was a living bomb. An armageddon waiting to be unleashed. And with all that she hadn't even been able to protect Aktaya. She... didn't deserve...

"Chell!?" Came a strange voice, scratchy with age... A familiar voice. "Chell my granddaughter, is that you?"

A pang of regret twinged through the haze of uncaring Ruby couldn't pull herself from. This awakened coma of guilt. She heard the old voice, resounding in its familiarity.

"Grandmother!" Chell exclaimed, joy lighting on her eyes, her words coming in the fast paced Mandarin that rung loudly in Ruby's ears with the memories of Xian Pu. Chell's haze of neon green hair left her vision. Ruby couldn't bring herself to care, staring blankly at the ceiling. Staring into the memories of casting aside her honor for bloodshed.

Still, something in that aged voice tugged at her.

Ruby heard the soft thud of the two women wrapping themselves in a close embrace.

"Five years... five years four months and three days since you were taken from me." The old voice rasp. "Escaped the capture of the Musk themselves... I should never have given up hope. A true amazon indeed!"

"Grandmother, I... I am ashamed. You're eyes look down on me. I... My daughter still lives, captured, borne into Musk hands. Worse... I am no amazon. I escaped, but I never could have without... Grandmother?" Chell questioned awkwardly when she felt her grandmother's frail body go rigid in her arms.

"Can it be...?" The old woman stated, as she left Chell's embrace and climbed back on her staff, pogoing her way across the room.

"It... it was _her_ grandmother. It was she who led the escape from the realms of the Musk. Who saved me. And then... then at Kinagoda she destroyed half a Musk army. All by herself! I... She is an Amazon after your heart. A true amazon. Not... Not I." Chell's words were praising, yet saturated with self disappointment.

For a long while Cologne was silent, hovering over the barely conscious form of the red-haired girl. Chell watched, shocked as she saw a tear come to the old woman's eyes. "Did she...? All that, aye? I... would expect nothing less of my Son in Law." The old woman stated lightly as she brushed her fingers down the red-head's scarred cheek.

Cologne's thoughts ran ablaze with a horrible guilt that burdened her to her core, as realization dawned upon her. Ranma had been taken a Musk prisoner. Only _women_ became Musk prisoners. "Goddess above." Cologne breathed staring in horror at the eight manacles fastened around her son in law's wrists and ankles. As her eyes scanned the scars layered atop scars, marring skin that still held its uncanny beauty. She placed a hand on the slim girl's arm and watched the glowing colors beneath the girl's skin fluctuate in tune with the thrum of the ever-vibrating manacles. She reached down and touched the swollen belly of the girl's pregnant stomach in utter slack-jawed shock, incapable of believe what she was seeing.

Ranma had been captured by the Musk. A prisoner taken to become a Musk wife. A slave. A personal whore.

If ever there was a life Ranma would _never_ consent to, that was it. There was no surprise in Ku Lon's mind that Ranma had escaped the clutches of the Musk. No. If anything, Ku Lon would be surprised if the Musk had ever been more terrified of a prisoner, in all their days. Ku Lon was an old woman and she thought she could distinguish the mettle of a person on sight. Ranma's will could be used to shave diamonds and temper lightning bolts. How many corpses must the girl have stepped over to break free? How many...?

How young, innocence was cut away.

Despite herself, Cologne's eyes danced with images of the Musk's final end. Of Amazon's dancing around the victory chalice, held high by this red-haired warrior. Could there be any other outcome? Could the Musk not see what a terrible foe they had created? Oh Goddess, Cologne could almost feel sorry for the wretched creatures...

But never as sorry as she felt for the boy who could have been her great grandson.

In another life.

"Son-in-Law... _forgive me._"

Chell's eyes widened. "S-son in...?" The woman gasped. Cologne was a bit startled, as she'd almost forgotten her granddaughter was there, but she paid the other woman no heed. Explanations could be made later. For now, the red-haired girl was beginning to stir.

Ruby heard the words... but not until her old nick name had been used did her addled mind realize who was before her. She strained with all her might, and her eyes opened. Her lips tasted of the desert and her eyes felt as sandpaper and knives. But two words came out as best they could, clear enough for the aged woman to make out in a cracky sort of clarity. "Old... Ghoul...?"

"Ranma." The woman breathed.

Abruptly, a pang of emotion swept through Ruby's tired body. An old face. A face she'd dreamed of seeing again someday in returned glory. She'd always thought about returning to Nerima. After her revenge had been finally completed. After she was a man once more. Returning as _Ranma._ She couldn't now though. "Don't... call me that."

Now all she could think of was how much death she had wrought. Those aged eyes stared at her with her own measure of pity, and Ruby felt shame. The old woman knew now. Knew what had happened to her. Why she had never returned. Why they had thought she died, as they surely must have. She'd been too weak. And now shame added to her guilt, a heap to make her shoulders heavy from carrying it all.

"Oh my dear boy..." The old woman said softly as she approached the bed. "I... I'm so sorry."

Ruby's arms and back cracked with the effort of moving to turn away from the old woman. Shame was not something she had ever been very well acquainted with, and she had no room for pity.

"I... I guess you got what you wanted didn't you, Old Ghoul?" Ranma snapped, her voice weak and dry from days of sleep, but growing louder with the strength of her spite. "Here I am. Amazon. Pregnant. What more could you ask for?" There was a stab of hatred in her voice that she had not intended, but it was there nonetheless. Where had this woman been all this time? Why had she never come to rescue her?

That question hurt most of all. It was suicide for an Amazon to approach Musk lands. Or might as well be.

Ruby felt a tiny hand rest on her shoulder. "Son-in-Law eh?" She barked, angered at how comforting the hand felt. "Not likely. Stop looking at me like that! What? Am I not good enough for your great granddaughter now that I'm... _this?" _Ruby wasn't even sure what she was referencing. Her locked curse. Her manacles, or the child growing within her...

...Or the fact that she'd become a cold blooded monster who laid whole armies of men to waste. Couldn't forget that.

Without warning, the child kicked, and Ruby's hands instantly hovered over her swollen tummy, the rust finally cracking off of her tired joints.

Ku Lon was silent for a time, and Ruby spared a glance for Chell, standing in the corner and staring with a wide-eyed, comical expression. Cat was out of the bag, Ruby supposed. And instantly, her mind was swimming with the faces of men she'd killed with her cat-fist. Worse still, she felt it now inside her. She could call back that state of mind if she wished. And that was what horrified her the most.

No... what horrified her the most was that, if she were in the same place, she knew she would again succumb to the cat fist. She would slaughter them in her rage at the smell of Aktaya's blood. She would do it a hundred times over. And _that_ is was horrified her.

"Child, if you never marry an amazon. If you leave and I never see you again, you will still and always be my son-in-law." Ku Lon broke the silence, trying to keep a level face for the boy. But even as she spoke a current of anger had frothed through the old woman. 

_'If I ever get my hands on Herb... no. _When_ I get my hands on that foul princeling. I'm going to kill him." _Ku Lon knew her own limits. She knew that, in a fight against the youngest prince, she would likely be outclassed, or at the very least evenly matched. But that didn't matter. This was cause for the amazons to war. This... this was monstrous. Turning a _man_ into a Musk slavegirl?

It made her shudder, and boil simultaneously.

But of course, Ranma had persevered. Escaped even, and if the rumors were true, had led thousands of captives to their long sought freedom.

It was Ruby's turn to remain silent. She would be hard pressed to keep a straight face and tell the woman those words had meant nothing to her. The old woman was telling her, without tricks or twisting of words, that Ruby was her child. That Ruby meant that much to her. The words felt warm in her heart. Warm enough to make even the pity seem worth it. Warm enough to double her shame for all the death she had wrought.

"I don't deserve that." She stated. "I turned my back on my path. I didn't protect the weak. I didn't protect anyone. Just... slaughtered them, and I couldn't even..." Her eyes trailed to the bandage-wrapped form of Aktaya lying on a nearby cot.

Ruby felt the small hand touch her shoulder and that was all it took. Her visage cracked like a priceless vase, her eyes welling with tears kept unshed for so long. Startling the old woman she turned and buried her face in her great grandmother's shoulder.

_"I hate them..." _She hissed under her breath, heaving dryly, refusing to give in and bawl like she had wished to for so long. _"I hate the Musk. I hate this body. This bastard kid... I hate them all!"_

Ku Lon could do nothing except hold the red-haired mother-to-be, willing an aura of calmness about the room, and knowing that it would do no good. Idly, she ran her hands through the red clumps of unclean hair thinking to herself with words she could never voice. 

_'Who else could do what you have done? Who else could escape the Musk? No one I know. No one I know...'

* * *

_

Herb stared up, unable to see with the strange white lights blocking his vision and burning his retinas. But he could hear. And he could feel. Oh by the gods, he could feel.

"Speak _boy_." Barked a grating voice, that would have made a blacksmith's hammer sound like a puny clink.

Herb did not speak. But without warning he felt the cold slice of a nail being driving into his left foot, and could not hold back a groan of agony. His right foot already had a nail driven through it, and Herb was afraid to look down and see the point of the nail staring out of the top of it. He could feel the trails of liquid sliding down the sides of his cheeks and he could not bring himself to feel shame for them.

_'Ruby endured worse... Ruby endured worse... I can... I can take it. I _must!' The thought had become an endless mantra in his mind.

"Prince of the Musk... how does it feel boy...? How does it feel to be tortured as you torture ours? Good? I wonder, how will you enjoy becoming a husband to one of our amazons. A good little breeding boy? How does it feel to be the _schaat?" _The voice held little emotion, but there was a definite sense of pleasure.

Herb could not speak but his voice let loose a gasp as he felt the nail penetrate the skin at the top of his foot. No amount of words would sooth his sins. Despite the horrid pain of it all, Herb could not help but feel that he deserved no less. For this was the punishment he had subjected the most honorable foe he had ever faced to. Now he was paying for his cowardice. Perhaps... perhaps Ranma might come to forgive him.

Why that mattered to him so, he could never explain. Not even to himself.

Abruptly, cold water splashed across his body. He howled to rival his worst nightmares. The thin nails seemed to _grow_ inside his, now _her_, shrinking feet, widening inside her body and ripping her to pieces. "Please... stop this..." The words came unwillingly, but Herb couldn't take them back. At this he _did_ feel shame. How many days could it have possibly been? Two? Three? Already he was a broken puppet...

"Are you sure this is wise?" Came a voice, not directed at him, but at the woman torturing him. "I feel wrong, defiling a woman like this... even if he _is_ a filthy _Musk." _

The grating voice replied with the hint of a smile, ignoring Herb's pleas. "_This_ is what will humiliate him the most. This is what we captured Amazons faced. This is what _she_ will face."

Abruptly the lights in Herb's eyes were removed. A few blinks to wash away the tears and the blindness took less than seconds. Staring down between her legs at the newest form of torture, she wished she'd never opened them.

"The blood of dragons that flows through your veins will serve the Amazons well. Herb of the Musk. Bear us a good sister."

Herb's spine crawled.

**End Chapter Eleven**

**Author's Notes: **Massive apologies... I'm terribly sorry. You guys reached my 350 review request and I took longer than ever. I deserve to be treated to the Musk Kennels for half an hour. Luckily I'm'a guy and the Musk wouldn't touch me. *Grin*

In my defense, my story didn't gain 350 reviews until February so... not much of an excuse eh? /bow. I'm very sorry.

Thank you for all your spectacular reviews. I honestly can't believe the last chapter got over seventy. Amazing. Simply Amazing. I hope this chapter hit with a decent punch. I know its not the climactic wonder of chapter ten but we're at the bottom of the mountain again. Gotta climb back up before the volcano can explode with you guys sitting right on the precipice. I promise this story has as many twists and turns and the craziest roller coaster you can imagine and I hope you and your critiques and praises will be here with me!

Please **Leave a review!**

Till Next!

MB


	13. What Lies in Wait

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, _many_ characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Twelve**  
**What Lies in Wait**

_In the dark I lay, for eons it seemed, walking through the landscapes of my mind. I spent my days ever hoping that none of my tormentors would come to me. Hoping that none of them would come with their knives, their pins, their coals, and worst their men._

_I knew what She had felt. How She had hardened, and I understood. Finally. The only thing that ached more than their tortures was the guilt buried in my throat. A flaming prong stabbing my conscience night and day._

_Did She know? Did she _approve_ of what was being done to me, I wondered. Was this Her revenge? Or was She unaware of this hell I was condemned to? I could find nothing but fairness in it, though. I found my weakness there; my resolve did not hold a candle to Hers. I wept till my tears dried on my cheeks. I might have begged. I don't remember. But I know that if my ancestors ever looked down from the halls of the gods they would condemn me for those days where the frailness of my will shined like a flare. _

_But then, finally, She came. Her eyes alight with a horror that told me beyond doubt. No. She had _not_ known of my tortures. And, like the savior She was born to be..._

_...She rescued me.

* * *

_

"No you stupid girl!" The shout was filled with exasperation and was accompanied by a particularly loud and hollow _'clonk_.' The impact of a long staff smashing a human skull.

"Ow! What'ja do that for? I'm getting it!" Aktaya shouted, rubbing at her aching head, feeling small tears trail out of her eyes. They didn't come from the pain, it was a light hit after all. Instead her eyes watered more from indignation; a knee jerk reaction to get whiny when taking light, playful hits. Something from her youth she supposed, whenever a boy would noogie her or some other such nonsense.

The reaction probably needed to be disposed of, but frankly Aktaya didn't want to. She wanted a few facets of her old personality to remain. She _was_ cute after all. Ruby believed so at least.

"Stop mewling like a little boy and stand up. Do it again!" Tsoga stated in the harsh, no nonsense tone that seemed to be the only one the snappish woman had ever held. Thin and tall, she was a wiry old bitch, and Aktaya hated training under her. Well... kind of.

But god the skills she was learning! They were like shining gems, or delicious chocolates that she feasted on with delight! So many amazing things could be done with ki that she had never even imagined in her old life. Ever since she had been freed from her manacle and her ki had been released she'd become a powerhouse. Amazons who had been training their whole lives found themselves dwarfed by the power she could wield.

Most of them usually wiped the field with her of course, as they had precious experience that she'd never been privy to, but still. In terms of raw ki, if she wished, she could simply light up the battlefield and blind her opponent with the color of whatever emotion she was currently feeling, and then bash them with the broadside of her blade. Rinse and repeat as needed.

Yes, the strategy was cheap, but dammit it was effective.

And for some reason the stupid amazons got _indignant _over it! As if a Musk wouldn't do the same thing in the midst of a battle, had he the option. Bah!

But she was learning quickly. Touching her ki was like grasping a particularly quick bunny. Or perhaps a fox, that bit back whenever it felt the need. Randomly, the fox would let itself be caught though, and she would find a random flare of ki arcing off her body to scorch an unwary antagonizer. Sometimes even an elder. Even so, she was getting very good at catching that fox when she wanted to.

And the results were... _spectacular._

Five story leaps into the sky! Punches that flew faster than her vision! Swipes of her longblade that cut fucking _trees...!_

...In _half!_

_'I'm such a badass...' _She wheedled to herself, inwardly grinning despite her teacher's scolding words, having already forgotten the pain her head had felt mere moments ago._  
_  
"Stop daydreaming!" Abruptly the staff smacked her again.

"OWW! Cut it out you barmy old harlequin!" Aktaya exclaimed, hatefully rubbing her aching head once more, thoroughly knocked back down to earth this time.

The problem with her amazing feats of physical prowess was the second half. Yes. She could leap up five stories. But then she inevitably had to fall back _down. _And that was where her ki would abruptly decide _not_ to be there to support her fall. She could swing her blade at a tree, and oh yes, it would slice through... right before her ki decided to gutter out half way through the instantaneous slice, jerking her massive blade to a halt, embedded halfway within the bark of the tree. Meanwhile her arms screamed at being so abruptly stopped. She'd lost count of how many times she'd pulled muscles in the days since waking with only one eye.

Amazon youths laughed at her, and her cheeks flushed. And the process repeated.

She hadn't yet had problems _punching_ at least, but more than once she had broken bones by her unsteady ki flow. The wellspring of power was as potent as it was fickle. It refused to cooperate with any consistency unless her emotions were finely tuned to a single point or objective.

But even _that_ had an upside. Broken bones mended in a day. Pulled muscles seemed to fade to mild winces in only a few short hours. Bruises lasted no longer than thirty minutes, and cuts sealed almost before her eyes at times. It was as unnerving as it was... well... _totally fricking awesome._ She was a superhero! And it was moments like this that made her miss her old friends as much as she missed indoor plumbing and air conditioning. Showing off would be so much fun! Ah well.

The elder, Tsoga, blinked at the Japanese girl's insult. Harlequin was not a word that translated well, and instead decided to pay it no mind. "Now. You will try again. And this time, when I say _fold_ it into a pocket of ki, you will do so. Not engulf it in irritation! You must make yourself _calm_ for this!"

_'I'd be calm if you'd stop hitting me in the head!' _Thought Aktaya with a glare, but again she tried, all the while smoldering. _'I'd be calm if this wasn't so _stupid!'

Tsoga, a teacher of younger amazons most of the time, had taken a special interest in Aktaya when she'd randomly spotted the girl training with a broadsword as tall as she was. The woman hadn't discouraged Aktaya, but had instead encouraged the Japanese girl to new heights. And thus, Aktaya had found a daily trainer in the woman.

Apparently, this _hidden weapons_ bullcrap would work _wonders_ for both her ki control, and for helping her carry the bulking weapon around. She'd seen the woman pull things out of nowhere, and she still had trouble believing that it wasn't just a magic trick. Despite assurances that the feat _could _be accomplished, and that she had more than enough ki to do so, she still kept looking for hidden mirrors.

Again Aktaya tried, calming her mind and settling herself as much as she could while ignoring the agitating twang coming from the bump on the top of her head. Her mind slowed and her thoughts trailed to nothingness as she drowned in the wondrous entrenchment that was her ki. Swelling around her, she grasped at it, embracing the torrent and pushing it into her abdomen. She had to be calm apparently. At least, as a start she had to be. She'd been told true hidden weapons masters could do this without even thinking, no matter how angry they were. Well... She supposed she probably wasn't that good.

"Calm... calm..." The elder droned. "You must be as the water. Take the item you wish to hide, and place it away. Slide it into your coat pocket, into the nothingness you surround it with. Calm..."

Right. She had to be calm. Slowly, she took the massive blade, pushing the pointed end into one of her loosely hanging sleeves. She had to be calm, and believe that the ki would create a space for it, away from both this world, and away from her person. Stored and always ready, but hidden from this reality. Calm.

Further the blade sunk into the wide sleeves she wore to make the idea of a pocketspace easier to adapt to. Further.

She was calm. Like a flowing river. Like a lightly gushing fountain, she surrounded the blade in ki, feeling her weapon disappear into her coatsleeve and out of this wor...

_'Riiiiip!'_

"Agh!" She exclaimed hatefully as the bladed point ripped forth from the back of her clothing for what must have been the tenth time that day. "This is completely idiotic! There is no way you can fit something that big in something this small!" She screamed with an angry gesture towards her sleeves.

A chorus of chuckling erupted around her. Abruptly the words she'd just spoken rung in her mind, and her cheeks colored pink. That only lasted a moment before she turned to glare at the girls and the single boy, aged surely no more than fifteen years, sitting in a circle around the elder and she. "Oh, grow up!"

The chuckles stopped, but Aktaya didn't care as she rounded her gaze on the elder. "This is ridiculous. I want to fight, not play parlor tricks."

The elder sighed. Not exasperated, or irritated even. It was the resigned sigh of a woman so used to showing the ways of the wise to others that she hardly felt Aktaya's outburst to be worth the trouble. A self assured action that did nothing to assuage Aktaya's temper. Why couldn't they be _fighting_ right now? Instead they had to waste their time on some stupid trick that was little more than a space saver at best, even if it _was_ real!

Which it wasn't!

_Pang! _

Somehow her broadsword had been stolen from her and the flat end bashed her into the head, her face impacting comically on the dirt ground.

"I'm sensing a trend here..." She groaned into the dirt. Curiously that hadn't actually hurt as much as the straight bo-staff impact had.

None of the other students actually laughed at her this time in particular. All of them had eaten dirt, and knew they would in the future. The practice was most Amazon elder's favorite way of punishing students. And as laughing might easily invoke the same treatment on them, most of them refrained but for a few sparse chuckles.

That didn't help Aktaya at all though as she rubbed her now aching head. Idiot women! Didn't they know that sharp head impacts caused concussions and amnesia? If they did, it didn't appear that they cared.

"Watch and learn girl." The Amazon said as Aktaya rose her eyes from the ground to see the old woman holding her broadsword. It looked ridiculous. The weapon was at least twice the hobbled old woman's length tall, but still the old woman placed the sword at the entrance to her draping shirtsleeve. And inserted the point.

In, in the longblade went, but nothing came out the other side. Further, it sunk within her coatsleeve till only the forearm-length handle stuck out. "You see? You cover it. Encase it, and pull it away from this world, into a pocket of your own making. Keep pushing and..." The sword disappeared into her sleeve. The old crone then waved her hands randomly to show that the sword was not somehow compressed within. She seemed to have full mobility, and yet a seven foot blade was somehow hiding within her drooping sleeve.

"Then on the battlefield, if you find yourself in a situation where your blade is necessary..." The woman reached her frail old hand up to her back, and grasped around something invisible. Her small hand came forward, and following slid the broadsword back into existence. Aktaya jumped in shock as the blade impacted against the dirt, sinking in with a chop that would have easily cleaved a man straight down his middle without warning. The blade nearly sliced Aktaya's knees clean off and only her quick reflexes had saved her.

"How did it get behind your back!" Aktaya asked as soon as she recovered, trying to close her gaping jaw and failing. "And hey! You could've cut off my legs!"

The woman sat back down on the dirt, facing Aktaya, ignoring her complaint. "It is a pocket of my own creation. It exists where my ki exists. You can pull an item from wherever your ki is stored en-masse. Naturally it is more difficult to pull items from further away from your person, so we start with sleeves. They provide a buffer in that it seems physically possible to place something inside something. However, when you have truly mastered this skill, you will need no compartment or pocket to place your blade within. Using only your ki, you can hold within you an army's worth of weapons. Or scholarly books. Or whatever strikes your fancy.

As if to punctuate her words, the woman tugged on the end of the great sword, and it disappeared as if sliding around a corner of reality and out of her vision. It didn't go _into_ anything. More like behind some completely camouflaged object, and then was gone.

"Amazing..." Aktaya intoned, and discovered that she wasn't the only one. She'd thought today had been a waste of a day that she could have been using sparring with her fellow Amazons... but if this really worked it could be the most incredible aid to her in battle ever! Summon the blade for a quick slice and then put it back away to continue with close range daggers? Fight hand to hand until she became surrounded and pull out the blade for a whirlwind to clear her path? Carry her books to school without EVER dropping them! There were so many _uses _for this!

Wait where had that last one come from...? Odd...

Regardless, now she understood why the old woman had seemed so resigned.

She rose to her knees and bowed her head to the ground. "I'm sorry, elder." She stated. "I... should've believed you."

The old woman merely smiled. "None of that, girl. But I am quite confident that you won't be getting this today. Perhaps you all have spent too much time idle. Partner up! The usual rules apply, and we will continue this tomorrow. I expect you to have the rudiments by the dawn tomorrow."

Aktaya nodded, then turned and jerked back in surprise at the face, clearly standing within her range of comfort.

"Don't worry Aktaya. I'm sure you will get it!" Came the broken Japanese of the only boy in the class. "Would you like to spar?"

Aktaya nodded, recovering from the boy's oddities. Sometimes she felt so far behind... but she belonged. That was all that mattered.

* * *

The sky was stormy, or at least what little of it she could see through the treetop covering was, and the air was too cold for the sleeveless shirt she wore, but she'd grown good at warding the weather. Nothing but the coldest freezing could make her wince any longer. Not after the cold stone of the kennels. This chilly night was a warm breeze.

A strange calm had settled about the village in the weeks since the arrival of Kinagoda's survivors. Odd that. The place felt like a town or village even though it was inhabited by over three hundred thousand amazons strong. They were a quiet, quick people. If the proper bell called, the entire city could be utterly silent. Then moments later, the mill of people, the sound of blacksmiths crafting spears and swords, the sounds of arrows striking targets, could dwarf even the loudest of Japan's industrial metropolises.

It was one of those quieter times now, and Ruby welcomed it.

No attacks had come. Scouts reported that the great armies, no longer hidden from Amazon spies now that the women were looking with vigor and purpose, were remaining dormant. Biding their time for some strange reason, only the rare skirmish or battle broke out, and those only miles away from the nearest farm, let alone the city itself.

Joketsuzoku, unlike Kinagoda, was not surrounded by a wall. Instead it depended on the natural tree covering to defend it. That, and the fact that it covered no less than ten mountains, each with towers so tall that Ruby could swear she could see the Sea of Japan from their tops. Instead of just the cabins, as in Kinagoda, this colossal place featured more tree houses, huts, and strange pueblo-esque constructs that could stretch all the way to the treetops. It turned out that the tournament that Ranma had crashed when he had received the kiss of death from a purple haired girl so very long ago had actually been held almost twenty miles away from the city proper itself.

Her own home as she was coming to think of it, was surrounded by trees about half way up one of those tall mountains. From the porch of her small hut, she could see heavily trodden dirt paths winding this way and that around grown trees, with coverings that seemed to always be green. Even this close to winter, the entire city was covered in the shady green leaves of these massive trees, as if to make the entire city seem an out of season cocoon.

In a word, it was breathtaking. Torches lit at all points on every tree, highlighting the twilight of the city with a burning red glow, illuminating the dark world beneath into near-sunlight brightness.

Hundreds of people milled about below, and still more bustled and bumbled further on up this mountain. Through the trees below her she could make out a red glow trailing up the mountains opposite and adjacent. More than once Ruby had grown lost in the endless series of similar roads weaving beneath this unnatural greenery and this spectacular city.

Up the mountain she resided on and down the other side, was the edge of the city, while the heart lay a few miles down the way she looked. The heart, where Cologne lay. Where all those... _people_ were.

She shuddered with the memory. She'd left the healer's building some two weeks ago now. And found herself facing something she had never encountered before.

Adoration.

Oh sure, she'd felt Amazon glomps before. She supposed Borage and Marjoram had had their own strange adoration for her. Her fiancées back home had more of an obsession with her than adoration. But never had she felt the combined joy of the cheer of fifty thousand. All of them there... all cheering solely for her. She walked through, following behind Cologne as a path spread before the Amazon elder; she was not so lucky. Hands reached in, touching her, grasping if only for a fingernail on the hem over her shirt, almost worshiping her in praise and thanks and love and...

...and it was too much.

It had been all she could do not to break down and weep. Or shout at them. She was a goddamn mass murderer! A... a _fiend! _And yet they praised her.

_'What if I lose control? Don't they understand...?' _She thought dismally, staring down at her hands, seeing them drenched in blood, like they had been ever since she'd awoke.

A shudder rushed through her again and the hairs on the back of her neck stood. "They adore me. I saved them... I suppose they feel grateful." She murmured aloud to herself.

Very few people knew where Ruby had been taken. The elders had decreed her a heroine, and allotted her a cottage fit for an elite of the amazons. One just beneath that of an elder herself. Ruby felt uncomfortable with the honorific. With the honor itself. With... with everything. She was just a medic with a grudge and a lucky ace up her sleeve. Why couldn't they see that?

Strange, she felt. How different was she now from the Ranma of old? Perhaps he would have enjoyed the attention. He'd had an ego larger than the mountain she resided on. Amazing how a taste of humility could change her so...

"Ruby?" Came a light question, and Ruby's heart skipped a beat.

"Hey Aktaya-chan. You should be in bed." Ruby returned, pointedly _not_ looking into the thin doorway where she knew Aktaya stood, just within so others couldn't see her.

"Sick of bed." The girl whined in that pathetically cute way she had about her. A few moments of silence ensued, each one filling Ranma's mind with an internal mantra. _'Don't look, don't look, don't look!'_

Then Aktaya broke the moment, pouting a bit. "Sick of you avoiding me."

Sudden shock, Ruby turned instantly. "I'm not avoi... voiding..." Her words trailed off as she stared in wonder at the other girl.

Aktaya stood draped only in the thin sheet of wool that usually adorned their bed. Woven thinly, Ruby could see every mold of the taller girl's body, her chest poking almost visibly through the weaves of thread. Her hair, now long as opposed to its short form from when they'd first met, was messy with days of bed-head and twisted with more knots than Ruby's back. All in all she looked a complete mess. Like diamonds and emeralds scattered in dirt. The eye socket, empty now, showing a void into the back of her skull, was merely a dark cavern next to the fire burning in her good eye. Somehow, even as mussed as she looked, she was the most beautiful girl Ruby had ever seen.

"I... I've just been thinking." The red-head tried to recover, hoping the brown haired girl had not seen her dropped jaw, or noticed just how long Ruby's eyes had lingered on her bare left shoulder, uncovered by the swathing blanket.

"You think too much."

"I-!"

"Stop it. Now."

Ranma's eyes bulged as the girl dropped the sheet.

"So you were a guy. Or you think you were. Big deal." Aktaya stated, folding her arms beneath her very visible breasts. "Please Ranma... Come with me."

Ranma wanted to voice complaints. To tell the girl just _how_ wrong it felt for her to do... _those sorts of things._ Even with another girl it was still so unbearably strange after all this time. So long had she forced her body to feel disgust at touch. At physical contact, even before being captured by the Musk, that she barely understood how she could feel pleasure from it.

But she did. Discomfort... even downright anger melted away in Aktaya's pleading chocolate brown eyes. At least for the moment.

Ruby stepped inside the house and inside the taller girl's embrace, admittedly catching her before she fell from the effort it had taken her to stand. The girl was training too hard... Ruby didn't point it out though, and instead hefted the girl's arm around her shoulder. She walked them both back to the bed and gently lay the other girl down. She herself was having trouble remaining mobile, as the bulge in her belly was becoming increasingly impeding.

The one-eyed girl grinned, covering a wince of pain.

"Taya..." Ruby noted. "You're going to screw your hips out of alignment again."

Aktaya cocked her head with a mischievous grin and nodded at the redhead. "Nah. I'd prefer it if you were the one to screw my hips out of alignment. Then I can blame you. At least this time it wasn't because I'm 'too clumsy.' Stupid elders..." The girl remained silent for a moment, then winked. Suddenly she sprung and latched her arm onto Ruby's wrist.

Ruby knew she could have deflected the attack. To her it was slow... but from a barely trained girl like Aktaya, it was lightning quick, and Ruby found herself surprised at how much the girl had improved. Ever since the battle at Kinagoda, Ruby had noticed an uncanny strength popping up within Aktaya every now and again. An uncomfortably insistent tug. A playful slap that hurt just a _tad_ more than it should. The girl didn't know her own strength and she was subconsciously channeling her ki. Impressive. Very impressive.

Ruby knew that she was the weaker of the two, now that the other girl had gotten rid of her manacle, but she still couldn't help but feel guilty for the girl's injuries. The loss of her eye. Everything else... Honestly Ruby wasn't certain if she herself could have remained so cool, knowing that one of her eyes was gone, never to be recovered. Forever doomed to see only half the world? She shuddered. Aktaya had her own brand of stone embedded in her skin.

Or... maybe not?

_"Ggg-ack!" _Ruby exclaimed as she was pulled face first down on top of the other girl, their breasts mashing pleasantly together, effectively blanking Ruby's errant mind, and replacing her rampant thoughts with the more simple slur of, _"Oooh... squishy!"_

Without warning, Ruby found herself lip-locked with the other girl. Surprised only for a moment, her shock faded as she melted into the kiss, her eyes closing softly on reflex. She shivered warmly as roaming hands searched her back and torso, kneading her skin with gentle caresses that made her squirm.

Their legs were thrown haphazardly down at the bottom of the bed, entwined randomly amongst each other to the point where Ruby was unsure which pair was hers, and which belonged to her chocolate haired lover. That mattered little though. All that mattered was the rush sliding through them, blood pumping her with an unrequited desire that made her cringe and swoon all at the same time.

Her breath caught as Aktaya's hands drifted across her back to lightly graze the upper side of her backside, a wandersome finger traveling timidly beneath her belt and pants. Even as her heart fluttered at the touch, another of the girl's endless hands dug its way into the buttons on her newly acquired Chinese shirt, and grasped on to one of her full breasts.

She gasped at the heated squeeze, feeling the swollen mound respond in unbelievable pleasure to the simple pressure. Her cheeks flushed as she felt a dampness rise between her legs, along with a shame that she wished she didn't feel. Worse, a sharp memory of Marjoram's pleasures darted across her mind and she bit her tongue to rid herself of the memory.

"Aktaya... this isn't like you." She said suddenly, gasping slightly as the girl squeezed her again. "Why are you being so...?"

"Because I don't want to lose you!" Aktaya exclaimed, suddenly rolling atop Ruby, and staring down into her with her one eye, doing her level best to pierce the red-head's soul with the gaze. "Ever since I found out about your curse you've been avoiding me! Its driving me crazy! I've told you it doesn't mean anything and still you turn away!"

Ruby's gaze turned questioning. Then, heated. "It _does _mean something! It means everything! I used to be a guy. I... still think of myself as one, and I want to be with you... like... like a man should be. But then I think about Galm and Veter... Marjoram. Borage. I don't ever want to be like them... so I..."

"You'll never be like them. You're too kindhearted." The girl interrupted with a comely smile. And a sharp squeeze. "And you're far too busty."

Ruby rolled her eyes. She twitched suddenly as her stomach kicked, and Aktaya flinched lightly, easing herself atop the girl. "S-sorry." The brown haired girl said, softly. "I didn't hurt him did I?"

Ruby's frown turned into a small smile as her hand roamed over her stomach. It was becoming difficult for her to fight, nigh impossible in fact; she hadn't even really sparred once since she had awakened from the battle at Kinagoda. Sickness and nausea rampantly clung to her, and she felt herself losing her precious control. Anger became joy became depression in the blink of an eye and even her unwavering governance of her emotional state, during normal times, could assert no authority over the mood swings the baby was causing in her. Worse still, her skin glowed a different color with each emotion. The dull glow, a flashlight of color lying just under her skin, twinkled a glistening orange and pink and yellow at the moment, a tye die blob of color swirling randomly about her. No one ever felt one single emotion at once, and the colors reflected that. Lust, confusion, touches of anger, and above all love, were all openly displayed for the world to see. The elders couldn't explain it. They'd never seen anything like what she had done, pushing until she couldn't stop, building a layer of ki beneath her skin, a whirlpool inside a steel bubble, filled to bursting and then quadrupled. And the final result for her endless and unyielding effort? Trickles of ki and her heart displayed for all to see, shimmering on her sleeve.

All through her thoughts, Ruby had failed utterly to ignore the unending fondling of the other girl. She rolled her shoulders, making herself more comfortable on her back, and with it followed a moan as Aktaya's fingers grew more sensual. She rasped, her voice hissing in a futile attempt to keep the topic serious.

"This isn't a joke, Aktaya! I am-_aagghhh!_ Listen! The last thing I want is-_ooh!_ Aktaya, I'm trying to talk here!" Ruby exclaimed, her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment, even as the orange and pink beneath her skin brightened in rising lust. She made no move to push the girl's invading fingers away though.

Aktaya giggled, and pulled her hand away from between Ruby's legs, laughing lightly at the discontented sigh the action produced, but left the other buried pleasantly in the confines of the redhead's shirt, idly squeezing the mound whenever the fancy struck her. "I know." She replied neatly. "I'm trying to get you to stop it. You know you sure don't act like a boy. Most would be trying to get my clothes off in this situation." Aktaya noted with an odd smile on the sides of her lips.

Not realizing she'd struck a nerve, Aktaya let loose a yelp as Ruby rolled the girl back beneath her and stared down into her eye. "I'll show you..." She growled in challenge, lowering her soprano voice as far down in tone as it could reach.

The other girl was already naked, so the first thought that popped into Ruby's head to prove her manliness- namely tearing the girl's clothes off -was not very fruitful. Instead, she settled for kissing the other girl, invading the girl's laughing lips with her tongue, effectively silencing her. Simultaneously, Ruby's fingers slipped down to the girl's inner thigh, rubbing languidly around her core, but never quite touching.

"Mmmmph..." The brown haired girl moaned in response, clutching at Ruby's breast, while her other hand trailed around to the red-head's back, clutching the red fabric recklessly.

Almost unconsciously Ruby wriggled her legs around until the junction of her body lay between Aktaya's slowly spreading legs, and she dived, her lips kissing lightly down the one-eyed girl's cheek. A bit lower. A bit lower, until her lips trailed across the girl's neck, sucking lightly where her neck met her shoulder.

Aktaya let loose another moan, this one louder and far more sensual then the previous one, as it was unmuffled by kissing lips. Ruby felt the other girl stretch languorously beneath her and sighed in pleasure at the feel of the girl's naked skin.

One hand firmly lying on the back of the girl's head, she let her other trail down the side of Aktaya's body, having abandoned her inner thigh slowly reaching around to grasp her naked bottom. Squeezing in tandem every time the girl put pressure on her own breasts. Ruby loosed her own moan as a hot sweat began to permeate everything. Her stomach fluttered a bit but she wasn't going to let that get in the way.

She had... manliness to prove... in some strange way that she didn't really quite understand. Still! She wasn't going to back down. She whipped her shirt off as she lay back down pressing herself against the soft skin of the one-eyed girl, and found herself unsurprised at the fingers tugging at the hem of her pantline.

Many an Amazon blushed and grinned as they walked by the cabin on the outskirts of Joketsuzoku that night. But Aktaya and Ruby couldn't have cared less.

Neither of them noticed the small cat hovering around the door, its fangs arcing down over its jaw.

* * *

Far to the south of Jusenkyo. Far from the wars of Musk and Amazon, a man stood looking over the horizon from the top level of a newly rebuilt pagoda. A blue cape adorned him and in his hand was held a bowl of rice, lumped to overflowing. Atop that rice sat exactly two pickles.

"Something is wrong." The man stated calmly, his eyes scanning the north. The skyline danced through his eyes with the effect of thousands of warriors gathered and raging in anticipation. Their loads of mingling ki agitated by what was surely the onslaught of anger and war, lit up the sky brighter than even the sun could.

"What is it, my prince?" Came the voice of an orange haired beauty, standing at his side, also staring out over the balcony with eyes that could not see what his could. Her voice was questioning and worried, but the man felt her snuggle towards him a bit as he tightened his hand around her waist, pulling her closer.

"I sense a change. War is coming. China faces a new dynasty. The Amazons can't hold them at bay any longer. Not alone..." The man said, his eyes never leaving the horizon.

The girl at his side cooed lightly at his touch, but then looked up to him. Her eyes were curious and innocent. Beautiful as summer flowers. She seemed light as lilies now, but he had seen her fight for her desires. He had seen what she was truly made of. Even though she was not the greatest fighter, she made his heart swell. His wife, and his love. How lucky could one man be?

"Who?" Was her simple question.

The man finally turned to her, meeting her eyes. "The Musk. They are on the rise. The phoenix have joined them. It is time for us to honor old alliances."

"And... we go to join them?" The woman asked, orange hair turning and eyes glistening with curiosity.

"Gods no, Lychee!" The man exclaimed. To his shock, the pickle almost fell off the top of his rice bowl and he evened himself just in time. "No. The Seven Lucky Gods have been allied with the Amazons against those sickening barbarians since the dawn of China itself... Since long ago, when it was called Al'ket de'Chinasa, we have been allied against the Musk. It has been long since they needed our assistance. I fear they do now. And I will not bend knee to a Musk warlord while I still have breath.

The woman nodded. "Then it will be as you say, my prince. The Seven Lucky Gods will go to war. I will not leave your side, Kirin."

* * *

"You're a stupid_ girl!" _Ruby emphasized harshly, and Aktaya was painfully minded of the elder's words at training. Almost every day now she was called a stupid girl. But never by this woman. Still the redhead continued. "Dammit, Aktaya."

Aktaya glared back with a hateful and slowly simmering rage. This was not how romances were supposed to go! She tried, and she tried, to get the girl to ease up, to let her in... but _no! _Ruby would not give in. Over and over she went on about how uncomfortable her body made her. How creepy it all was. How much it disgusted her. Well... Not _exactly. _Ruby didn't complain _out-loud_ about the problem, not at all, but over the past few days, those irritating looks of disgust that kept crawling across the red-head's expression had gotten to Aktaya.

Worst of all the stubborn girl would not talk about it! She would not give in no matter what angle Aktaya took, and now the whole situation had boiled over.

"Oh _I'm _a stupid girl?" The brown haired girl raged, shaking her hands, and vigorously throwing her hair to keep it from shading her narrowed eyes. "At least I know what I am! At least I don't _glare_ whenever my lover touches me!"

Ruby winced, and Aktaya could tell she'd finally stung the other girl, piercing through the wall of emotion her hormones were creating.

A few Amazons had turned eyes towards them momentarily, but they'd turned away just as quickly. It was... a good practice. One Aktaya was immensely fond of. Amazons did not care to pry into the social problems of others. In fact they went out of the way to _avoid_ them. Discord among a family created discord among friends. It stretched out and grew and caused a lack of unity that made up the wholeness of Amazon society.

Still it didn't help enough. The sky was covered in clouds and a chill wind swept through the forest's underbelly. A rain was coming, and it might even be heavy enough to break through the dense tree canopy above. The sun was rarely visible and the Amazons lived in partial darkness most of the time, but days like this made it seem worse than ever. It only added to the dismal mood of their anger.

Aktaya _knew_ the baby was causing this. She was almost _certain_ that Ruby wouldn't be reacting so badly if it weren't for the bulge in her stomach. But the girl could be so damn irritating that even that did nothing to assuage her bruised pride. It was out in the open now, and nothing could change that.

"I'm not... there's nothing wrong with _you!" _Ranma amended, appeasing, yet still unbearably angry. "Can't you just leave it be? It's just something that I have get over."

Aktaya's eyebrow twitched. It was as if Ruby was actively _trying_ to piss her off! How could the girl not understand that it was that very attitude that was causing all of this tension? Don't worry Aktaya. I'll handle it! It's all on me Aktaya! It's _my_ burden Aktaya! How did the other girl not _get_ that Aktaya wanted to be let in? That she wanted to understand why this was all so strange for her?

Could being the wrong gender _really_ make her this queasy? Sure. If she used to be a boy, yes the whole situation was definitely strange. But Ruby still had a _girl_ in her arms! By the Goddess, that was all that mattered, wasn't it?

Ruby didn't seem to think so.

"Just stop worrying about it! It's my problem, and I promise I'll fix it." Ruby again tried to placate the brown haired girl.

Aktaya would have none of it. This had gone on for too long.

"And there it is again." She barked in response. "How are you not getting that all I want is for you to let me in? _Trust me._ To... to just fucking _talk_ to me? R-Ruby, I love you. Why does that bug you so much...? Please? Tell me why it feels so wrong to you, so I can help! You don't... you don't have to do everything alone you know...?"

Aktaya had expected Ruby's eyes to ease at her pleading. They had not. Instead, the red-head's cold blue orbs narrowed. "Aktaya, you just... don't understand! You _can't_ understand! So just leave me alone about it, okay!"

Aktaya's whole _body_ twitched.

"Fine." She uttered coldly, hatefully. Throwing up her hands in mocking anger as she turned her back and stalked down further away from their cottage, towards the training grounds, just as the rain began to fall, making padding sounds on the leaves of their forest roof.

"Go it alone. Be the hero. S-see if I care..." She managed to hide the glinting shine in her eyes, but failed to keep the stutter from her voice.

Ruby turned with her own sneer and slammed the door shut.

The problem was that she did care... She cared so much that it burned...  
_  
'Fine Ruby. If you won't help me understand, then I'll learn another way. You don't get to just push me away... not like this.'

* * *

_

"It's not possible." Chell stated, knowing in her heart that what her grandmother was saying could not possibly be true. "It... is _not_ possible!"

The old woman turned to her and shook her head with a sad sigh as she idly poked the campfire she sat next to. Two other elders and four students all far too young to even hold a bonbori, let alone be considered warriors, sat with the powerful Amazon staring at her and listening to her stories.

Her ridiculous, soul biting stories.

Most stories were good for peace of mind. They eased the tension one might feel. They prepared a woman for her inevitable leap into battle. And a leap it would be... So far the Musk had been content to sit and wait, a whale biding its time before it inhaled the Amazons whole. But Chell knew such a peace would not last. It was the calm before the leap from the edge of a cliff. The ease one felt just before a dagger slid into an enemy heart. The air was laced with tension, and children were frightened. The old spoke stories to the young, and it did ease hard aire of the city. But Chell was in no mood for it. Not anymore, as she listened to one fantastical tale after another portraying Ruby- _Ruby! -_as a... a _man!_

Cologne had no right to lie to her like this. No right!

"Child, it is best you accept what is laid plain before you. I have said it and she made no effort to deny her past. Why do you refuse to let this issue drop, girl?" Cologne barked harshly, angered at being interrupted in the midst of her story telling. The fire itself seemed to flare bright orange with her rage, and the children, too, glared at her.

"Because I will not hear this slander! She is an Amazon. The greatest Amazon I have ever known, and I will not hear her name marred by these fantastical fairy tales. If you _must _make up these ridiculous stories than you will leave _her _out of them!" Chell exclaimed, a hate-filled blaze in her eyes. Family or no, she owed her allegiance, her very _life_, to Ruby. Not even Cologne should be allowed to... to tar Ruby's honor so.

Not even for the appeasement of children.

But, to Chell's fury, the old woman only smiled.

"Shaddup!" Came a prepubescent squawk from one of the tiny listeners. "I wanna hear more! What happened to Ruby next! Did she beat the _Blue Thunder!" _

Making a wide motion and elaborately turning away from Chell, Cologne eyed the child and gave a wide grin. "Haww!" The old woman bellowed. "Many, many times child. I made my way to their school grounds near every morning to watch. Every day the fool boy was beaten and each day he stood, indominately determined to win _both_ Ran- ah... Ruby, _and_ young miss Tendo! Never once did the fool realize he was trying to court a man!"

A round of laughter echoed, not just from the campfire listeners but those from standing a ways away near houses and structures, idly listening to the elder's story as well.

"Well I think Kuno sounds like a good catch. I mean, yes he obviously was a weak male, but to be so determined? To take the humiliation of being defeated every day, and keep on trying? That sounds like a good man to me." Said a young fighter, with long blonde hair and a crooked nose, gesturing animatedly.

"Don't be a moron, Pantine!" One of the others, a girl with black hair and a strong aura about her, replied. "He didn't even realize he was chasing after a man! Who would want a man so foolish?"

"Men already _are_ foolish. At least this one is foolish for the right reasons. He reaches high, and hopes to catch the stars by letting Ruby take him as her husband!" The blonde, called Pantine, retorted heatedly.

Chell snorted, just barely holding back a wave of giggling laughter at the sheer... outlandish idiocy of the comment. It was... just plain _ludicrous_. Ruby... take a _husband!_ On the day Ruby took a husband, Chell would watch the sky fall, the grass would be white, and the Musk would bear daughters. On that day... she would watch Aktaya strangle and kill the man brave enough to even _try. _The whole thing would be most amusing.

"Bah." She cursed as she stood from her place near the fire. It was all that really needed to be said. She turned walking out into the dim red walkways of the night beneath the canopy of leaves that covered all of Joketsuzoku in its lush greenery.

Angrily she grabbed a torch from a nearby tree and held it aloft, enjoying the pleasant burn of the kindles at the end of the wooden stake. It was growing late; the sun had been down for almost two hours now, and she wanted an early morning tomorrow. She would have to train hard to keep up with Ruby. If such a thing were even possible.

As she walked towards her hut, up and down sloping hills and weaving between trees and the huts built around them, she practiced embracing her ki. She still had trouble grasping just how foolish she had been, her years in captivity. Once she had been shown that the manacles could be outgrown, that they actually _had_ a limit to how much power they could hold in, she had expanded beyond that limit in a matter of days.

Already her capacity for ki was rising. Matching those younger warriors who had only just gained their first touch within her first few days of training, she was now far beyond. Each new day she fought new opponents in spars, ever increasing her skill. And her ki grew and grew.

"I am strong now. In spite of you, Clail." She spoke softly to her manacle, almost challenging the magicked stone. "I cannot wait to rid myself of you."

"Chell!"

The shout jerked Chell out of her internal warring with the voiceless manacle. She sent one final glare at the beastly wrapping covering her arm before turning to the source of the shout, her green hair whipping about, glowing orange under the dancing firelights.

"Aktaya." She replied. "You are... feeling better then?"

Aktaya seemed so different from the pathetic Japanese girl she had once been. So very different. The massive broadsword never left her back it seemed. A fortnight and a week since the battle at Kinagoda, and Chell was still unused to the girl's new appearance. She had adapted to Amazon ways well, now wearing a tight, deep navy blue dress blouse which, while covering completely, still seemed to display every ample curve the girl had. Her legs were bare save for the tight shorts she sported, held up by... _something._ for some strange reason the girl insisted on leaving the indecent pants undone at the buttons, displaying just a bit of her stomach. A scar or two, now mostly healed, licked up strangely toned legs. Her hair swayed now at her waist, and a tacit gleam of aggression permanently shined in her eyes.

_'Eye.' _Chell mentally amended, and looking, found that eye had a troubled visage.

"Hello, Chell. It's been a little while." The brown-haired girl said, her voice holding a strange discontented confidence that only firmly cemented the girl's permanent change in personality. Added to that, the aura of ki, rippling like the thinnest colored mist, bathed whatever area she resided in with her emotions. The poor girl had a dreadful time controlling her newfound power. At the moment she radiated doubt and uncertainty, blended seamlessly with anger, frustration, and a curious lust for battle. The girl had developed a taste for it in the days since waking it seemed, and had twisted muscles more than once in spars and mock fights.

"Aye it has." Chell replied, her tongue finally mostly used to the tones of Japan. "Something troubles you."

Aktaya nodded in response. "It's... something Ruby said." She replied. Her finger trailed to the eyepatch covering the empty pit below, and she fingered it idly as she spoke. "She said... she says I "don't understand." I try and try to get her to explain why she's so upset about this whole Jusenkikio curse thing or whatever, and she just won't talk to me..."

Chell's breath caught in her throat, ignoring the girl's odd pronunciation. Ruby spoke of a Jusenk...? it couldn't be. The elder's stories couldn't actually be _true_, could they? No. _No!_ Ruby was the epitome of the fortitude that _women _stood for! Not... She couldn't be a man! She just couldn't be!

"...get to Jusenkyo? It's called Jusenkyo right?" Aktaya was saying as Chell faded back into the conversation, trying to keep the horrified look off her face. She feared she was failing but the Japanese girl didn't seem to notice.

"Forgive me. I don't know. You'll have to ask someone else. I... I must go." Chell stated, not actually having a clue what the girl had asked. Making as quick an exit as she could, she walked briskly back up from the way Aktaya had come, leaving the girl spluttering and somewhat indignant.

Chell hadn't realized she'd spoken the entire response in mandarin, which the girl had no understanding of. She wouldn't have cared if she did. Her world and her loyalties were being shaken. She feared they would be turned upside down. If it was a man, and not a woman, that had become the Hero Chell admired so... she didn't know what she would do.

All she knew was that she and Ruby had to have a talk.

A long one.

* * *

Esthre wobbled. He'd left her! Now was her chance! Her one and only chance!

The sun shining harshly overhead seemed a grim taunt. The sun baked away and still the earth was frozen, each wind a harsh and terrible and biting. Flakes of snow fell, each one feeling like a needle landing on her back. The feel of the icy mud she lay face down in practically burned her bare chest. But she would escape... she was an Amazon. She_ was!_ And she would have the strength to escape...

Her hands, bound together beneath her, hung limply, unresponsive to her commands as she tried to stand and rise from the mud. A fire of hatred burned in her eyes, but that fire was a mere kindle next to the powder-keg of fear. Why had he left her?

No. No reason to overanalyze such an opportunity! This... this might be her only one.

She balled her fists together and pushed with all her might, raising her mud-covered icicle of a body up. She beheld the man in the distance, through blurry tired eyes as he walked a slow determined gait. His huge arms and legs made her feel like a kitten. No. An ant.

But... goddess she had to try! Maybe... just maybe he'd forgotten her?

"Yes... Finally here. Finally!" The hulk like man exclaimed again, excitement tingeing every aspect of his tone. He stretched his arms, and she shivered at the sound of the sharp crack they made as he stretched. "By my father's breath, that was a long walk... good company though!"

Where was she anyway?

Looking around she saw... pools? Hundreds of... pools? Wait... the cursed training ground?

"Ah... y-yes sirs. You is honored Musk Princeling! You come to Jusenkyo for...?"

Abruptly the reason that Borage had brought her here became apparent. Esthre had long known how captured amazons were treated by the Musk. Rape was the most obvious. She had been confused when Borage, the prince of the Musk himself, had refrained from partaking in such acts. In fact, the _only_ reason a Musk wouldn't rape a captive, particularly an Amazon, is because that Musk _couldn't. _But with Jusenkyo... Her mind came to a horrifying conclusion. Borage was here... to regain...

Utter panic threatened to clamor in around her and, grunting in pain and tiredness, her sore limbs responded to her commands. The knowledge that a bear or a lion or worse might be upon her at any moment gave her limbs a renewed adrenaline that only came with fear. She stood and turned, limping as fast as her once-strong legs could take her. A frantic, drunken pace, she hobbled her way towards the long sloping path that climbed out of the valley.

_'Would you forgive me Ta'arva? My sister?' _She asked as she began a slow walk in the opposite direction from the man who's captive she'd been for longer than memory. _'Can you ever forgive me?' _

The man had killed her sister. Starved her, and allowed her no food. None but what he allowed her to tear from own dead sibling's cooked bones. She could never forgive herself for that. How could her Ta'arva ever forgive her? It was foolish to even run... All she sought was death. She could not live. Not with this guilt. She would find a ravine to throw herself in. A shunted spike to fall on. Anything to end this misery...

Anything to make her death... to make it her own. To leave this wretched monster behind and save as much honor as she could pull from the scraps of her half-dead limbs.

Tears trailed down her cheeks as she ran. Tears of shame and regret. Failure. She was only seventeen! She couldn't be expected to.. to...!

_'Excuses.'_ Chimed the voice of her instructor. _'You are no Amazon...'_

_"I know..." _She whispered to herself in agony. Her feet trailed along the ground, the sludge of mud and dirt leaving two paths of dragging feet behind her. But she dared not turn back. No pride in the world would make her turn back. Nothing. If, by some miracle, she managed to reach safety, she would never touch a weapon again. She was no Amazon. She would not dishonor her people by trying to be something she never had the right to be.

She was no Amazon. Just a coward.

Still she ran... hobbled like mad, a muddy, naked fake Amazon dashing away from Jusenkyo as fast as her legs could carry her.

In the distance behind her, she heard a splash, the sound of hard skin hitting the surface of a pool. Then, a rumbling echoed.

_'Run. Don't look back!'_

The rumbling grew louder. Her hobbling picked up pace as panic grew. Her heart raced. Her feet began to remember what it was like to run, ambling along with her hands tied tight together. Up the mountains and away from the valley and the monster who had captured her.  
_  
'Run, stupid legs, RUN!'_

Run she did. She reached the path that sloped up and out of the valley, dashing up the winding pebble filled trail. Her feet stung but vigor was returning to her. She was free! He'd ignored her completely! Her vision wavered just as much as her staggering steps but she was awake enough to get far from here. As far as she could.

Up up, she ran, leaning against the wall for support when her limbs lost their adrenaline rush. She was safe! She was... going to be free.

_'Free to what...?'_ The girl thought now that her panic was slowly fading. _'Free to a life of shame and regret... oh god. I _ate_ my sister...! What the hell am I...?" _Even the deep sobering thoughts were not enough to stop her feet. She still ran, rising ever higher, when she became aware of a strange... breathy noise behind her. As if someone were exhaling, and enhancing the sound a hundredfold.

Slowing, to a brisk walk, believing herself far enough away to be safe from immanent attack, she risked a look back down into the valley below. She gasped. Looking down, she could not see the valley. The trees, sparse though they were, that grew along the paths and near the bottom were gone, shaded by an thick... bubbling dense fog, rising from the depths below. It covered everything, blotting out the entire underbelly of the valley, and hiding the pools from view.

That was not what caused her shock. No... the fog was... purple. A deep, twisted shade of purple.

A sharp gust of murky wind from below, and another sound of a strange low exhalation echoing from below, was her only warning. The purple fog swelled up like a geyser, a cloud of gas expanding to fill up the valley in one swift gush. The purple fog rose to her and swept over her like a murky flood. Her breath was stolen from her, leaving her gasping for air the moment she breathed the noxious fumes. Her eyes grew wet with tears and she shut them, scrabbling feebly. Gasping, she hardly noticed herself tumble to the ground, luckily away from the cliffside.

The fumes tasted like vinegar and blood. Her ears burned, and she suddenly felt as if every malady and sickness she had ever contracted in her short life had been imposed upon her in one moment. Abruptly she vomited, feeling poison saturating into her skin. Her eyes would not open, and she wailed in muted groans.

_'What is happening?' _She thought, but the question lasted only long enough for her to begin clawing at her festering stomach. Dimly, she grasped at the cause. _'Poison...!'_

Gasping for breath, agony rising from the depths of her stomach, she coughed endlessly, begging her half dead limbs to move. She had to climb. _'The only way out is up! But... which side was the cliff on?' _Her thoughts in turmoil, she slowly rose to her knees, grasping blindly in the fog, unable to see even her own hands in front of her. Blindly she guessed, reaching towards the direction she prayed was the wall, and not the hundred foot drop into the valley below.

Relief flooded through her as she found the rocky wall, her palms running over its rough edges. She pulled herself fully erect and willed herself forward, blindly following the cliff and her dim recollections of the path that curled up the side of the mountains surrounding this cursed place.

The hiss of someone- _something_- exhaling lowly and loudly, immediately sent another wave of nausea through her body. Her skin felt like slugs were slithering all over it, and her stomach groaned in protest. Her hair was whipped up again, along with the remains of her clothing, as a gust of hot clammy breath seeped through her. She fell to the ground once more, disorientation sapping her of her ability to coordinate her steps. Her face slammed into the rocky path with a dull thud, that she barely noticed.

"I can't... ahh... goddess I...!" She pleaded. The words sounded feeble to her ears, but the haze felt hot and clammy, like putrid water baked under a burning sun. Like the breath of a rabid dog. Of a hundred rabid dogs. "I want to _die...!_ _Let..._"

Her body lay crumpled in a heap, spasming and convulsing. Dry heaves wracked her and her cries were met with no answer save the torment of the poisonous fumes.

Until...

Before her a... thing... a monster, green even in the midst of the purple gas, appeared. She still couldn't see her hands, but somehow this writhing monster, horror given form, was visible through the mire of purple. The sight burned into her memory, an engraving that her mind would never escape. A dead black maw, like gazing into the underworld itself, was wider than an Amazon was tall, with more teeth than ten lions. Each jagged tooth jutted out like a glistening sword surrounded the gaping crevice that formed its huge mouth. Limbs, it had aplenty. Tens, hundreds. Spindly, thick tentacles that writhed like the snakes of Medusa, all skulking around and making a sticky wet sound. She watched it slither towards her, supported by its thick platform of tendrils while terror that she could not voice gripped her tighter than ever Borage had.

Amazon's and Musk alike were taught the pools of Jusenkyo. They knew what had drowned in those depths. Most all knew how powerful the creatures of the nether springs could be.

Her last word, choked out in a desperate attempt to warn... someone... anyone, was the name of the beast.

_'Malboro...' _

Esthre's eyes closed. Darkness. Relief.

O Blessed Oblivion.

Her body plummeted lifelessly off the edge of the cliff and down into the waters below...

* * *

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Ruby cursed, as Tir began to cry. Who was it? Who could _possibly _be knocking on the door? And _why oh why_ couldn't they have waited _five minutes_?

Bloodshot eyes and tiredness wracked Ruby. Her belly felt wide enough to sit plates on and she was depressed, angry, and remorseful all at the same time. Luckily, Tir had provided a good distraction from stupid Aktaya and her stupid stupidness!

... That sounded a bit better in her head.

Sighing, she took a delicious looking red grape and popped it in her mouth from the selection of fruit on the table, even as she picked the baby up from his crib and began to rock him on her shoulder. She patted his back, hoping that the slow motion might sooth his agitation. The knocking came again, but the boy's crying didn't seem to rise or falter with the action.

"Come in!" She shouted. Little point trying to keep the boy asleep now...

The door opened tentatively, and a green mess of hair, wet from the pouring rain outside, popped in through the opening. Chell turned and looked at the red-head and a slice of relief crossed her expression. "Finally!" Her eyes took on a wistful look for a moment as they trailed across the child, and she walked fully into the house. "Do you know how _hard_ you are to find?"

"I've some idea." Ruby replied sardonically, recalling the many times she'd been lost in the vastness of Joketsuzoku searching for her own cottage on the inner side of the Last Mountain to the South. "Ya need somethin'? I'm kinda busy." It came out as more of a snap than a request. Hours since Aktaya had run off leaving her alone with her son, and still her anger had not faded. Stupid Aktaya, picking and prying like a spider, into issues that weren't important. Making a big deal out of stupid little looks.

It wasn't as if she was disgusted with _Aktaya!_ She _had_ to know that. And yet for some reason the girl just wouldn't let it go...

"Oh dear, I woke him. Sorry. Come give him here... You look as if you could use a break." Chell gestured with an open arm as she closed the door behind her and stepped in, approaching the quaint kitchen table mat where Ruby sat cradling her son.

Ruby tried to keep the look of relief from her face, but it washed over her immediately upon hearing the older woman's request. Almost without thinking she moved to hand the child off to the more experienced woman. Then she relaxedly popped her back, bending and stretching with the exhausted sigh of a relieved parent.

Looking over Chell, Ruby couldn't help but notice the changes. Chell had grown... well... not exactly muscular since her time in the Kennel's but the girl had lost the emaciated look she once had. Her hair, no longer dirty, seemed to shine as bright as Xian Pu's ever had. Youth and strength all collided within the woman and Ruby dryly admitted that she felt attracted to the older woman. Not the same as Aktaya... or even Shampoo or Akane from back home, though. It was more like the attraction she had felt towards Hinako. Just a healthy appreciation for her form. Nothing more.

Even more surprising, Chell's grasp of Japanese had increased exponentially, just as her own of Mandarin had she supposed. Grinning, Ruby watched Chell coo to the boy in her arms, little chants in Ruby's language, that probably would have been meaningless to her once upon a time. It was amazing how well it worked, and Ruby smiled tiredly at the scene.

The older woman couldn't help but noticed Ruby's anxiety and commented with a chuckle. "Eager to get rid of him, eh? Are the effects of childcare beginning to weigh on the mighty Ruby?" Almost unconsciously she began patting the baby's back, shaking him as she had done for Shampoo so very long ago. But never for her little Illi...

The boy's wails had faded to chuckles and hiccups now, and Ruby glowered. "_Ruby_ wasn't made for rearing kids." The red-head retorted in a mocking third person.

Chell watched Ruby sigh and plop brokenly into one of the table's chairs, her hands migrating to her distended belly. "Chell, I'm not cut out for this. Tir scares the hell out of me. He coughs and I go nuclear! He cries and I'm frantic... How in the hell am I going to...?" Her wordless gesture to her stomach was more than enough. "And with Aktaya being so damn pushy lately..."

Chell only smiled knowingly. "Don't worry so. You are a natural mother. Children seem to love you, and I've no doubt that your son will love you just as much. You are... a woman among women."

Chell's heart sank at the girl's reaction to that. The redhead looked petrified. And that was all the confirmation she needed.

"Kami, I am. Aren't I...? Sorry... Sorry Pops." Ruby hissed under her breath, just loud enough for Chell to make out. Her eyes closed, Chell could see water forming at the corners of the girl's lashes. And she felt like crying, too.

"You're a man. Aren't you...?" Chell asked pointedly, still rocking little Tir as best she could, while she felt like breaking inside.

Ruby remained silent for what seemed forever. Her eyes closed, she seemed to be physically willing herself not to break. Chell felt no better.

Ruby... Touched by Jusenkyo's waters, and taken to the Musk as a torturee. A woman, made. Not born. A testament to the strength of _men_ everywhere. Chell felt her world crashing down. Ruby was _not_ the living proof that women were harder than men. She _wasn't_ the embodiment of Amazon pride... In fact, Ruby was the complete opposite. Ruby proved the weakness in women. No woman had escaped the Musk...

The one with the strongest will ever known... was a man. A man was her savior. The very thought was like a mallet smashing into her pride.

"I don't remember what it feels like..." Was the girl's answer after an eternity of self examination and anger. "I don't remember. And unless by some miracle I get that damn kettle... This is what I'll always be."

Chell could only nod. And silently pray that the girl never got her hands on the unlocking kettle. Ever.

"I suppose," Ruby seemed to strain, as she placed her elbows on her knees, resting her head in her hands. "...that while I'm spilling secrets I might as well get out the big one. Xian Pu's your daughter, right? I've met her. In fact, by Amazon law, she's technically my wife."

Chell was unsurprised by this. Now that it had been confirmed that Ruby truly had been a man, it was unlikely that her great grandmother's words had been false. Still it stung. It stung and Chell's tongue became sharp, while her wit dulled.

"_You're_ her _husband. _You belong to _her." _Were the words that came to her lips. She felt betrayed, and her voice showed it, eyes narrowed. Age old prejudices died hard... too hard. "Don't talk about my daughter like you _own _her._ Male_."

Chell felt good. The derogatory tone felt satisfying to her.

For all of two seconds...

Chell wished she could have that last word back. Hell, the instant she spoke opened her mouth she knew what she was saying was utter idiocy. But it was too late...

Ruby's jaw dropped open in shock, both at the words, and who they were coming from. Hurt, stumbled through her visage, with equal portions of disbelief. Then the implications of Chell's words sunk in. Chell was accusing her of being like them. Being... being no better than the Musk! Simply because of the gender she'd been born!

Pure unbridled rage burned through her, and all the colors shimmering through her skin blended into a blistering cacophony of coppery red. "How could you? How _dare you?" _The redhead hissed through her teeth. "Do you truly think me so low? After all I've done, after fighting so long for what is _right_...? how could you possibly think that I-! That! That I-!" Ruby couldn't even voice the words as she grated her teeth, and clenched her fists. She couldn't even imagine the right words.

Chell gulped as Ruby's manacles began to ring lowly, thrumming against each other to the tune of the soon-to-be-mother's anger. "I... spoke rashly, Ruby. I-"

"_Get out of my house!_" Ruby screamed as she charged forward, snatching her son from the betrayer's arms as gently as rage would allow. Abruptly Chell's chair burst into flames and she yelped scrambling away from the wooden fixture. Terrified, Chell turned to Ruby hoping to ease the girl's rage.

"R-Ruby! Please I did not mean-!"

Tendrils of red ki were arcing off the instantly demonic visage crafted by the red-haired girl. Her hair whipped around her, and yet somehow the boy in her arms didn't stir from his slumber. Her eyes seemed to blacken, and the room grew dark. Abruptly, Chell became aware of the fruit on the table. It was smoldering in burning red fire. Objects all over the room were almost instantly lit, combusting under the pressure of Ruby's rage. Chell's terror mingled with guilt in her throat as she felt her back press against the small building's door, her fingers scrambling desperately for the handle.

"_GET OUT_!"

Chell fled.

* * *

A wind bellowed through the midst of the tallest mountain, in the center of the Musk realm. It whistled harshly, with a hum that completely belied the emotions of two men standing in a horrified trance. Rain fell drenching them both, but neither could bring themselves to care. One stood tall and muscular with leopard print pads, staring up with a calmness that utterly masked the torrid current of emotions he held within. The other, limber but no less fit for his smaller stature, was shaking in fury and confusion.

The sun was falling, though of course, was invisible behind the dense cloud covering. Hidden further, the two stood in the shadow cast by the ever looming Tower of Ceira, majestic in the background of their solemnity. A spire taller than any spire, the tower shined like gold on a sea of late autumn brown, and wet soaked land. A sword that skewered the sky.

"This... _is_ d-disgusting." Said the smaller of the two, his twitching body skewering the sound of his words.

The nod of agreement was the only reply Mint received for his words.

"I... don't really feel like looking at boobies anymore."

Lime, fellow guardian of the prince, nodded once more.

"It's no wonder Herb hated his curse so much. He... he must have been so afraid." Lime wailed in a low voice as he stared at the tower. "If only we'd _known..." _

Another nod.

Silence held between them for a time. The only sound was the nervous, guilty twitches wracking through Mint's body. Somehow Lime remained stoic through it all.

"So... this is what it means to be a Musk Soldier. A true man. That's what we're supposed to do. Find the one that we think is the prettiest, and just take her. Just like we did in Japan." The young man said, soberly. Staring up at the Tower of Ceira, he sunk to his knees. His heart felt trodden and weak, and his bones lacked the strength they'd always held. "Oh god... what have we _done,_ Lime?"

Lime couldn't reply.

"They tortured her, that girl we brought from Japan... Just like they did to those women they paraded up there for us! This... this is sick! What if they did that to Herb! She's just as much a woman as any of these! What if they treated _her_ like a schaat?" Lime's voice grew hysterical as his tears flowed.

For the past... they had trouble remembering how long. For hours it seemed, they had watched women being degraded. Women who were as of yet, untrained in the ways of the collar. Schaats captured at the battle of Tsukigezoku, and before. Amazons. Proud women. And Lime and Mint had seen more breasts than ever their imaginations could create, listening to the coos and jeers of their fellow Musk brothers.

And they had found it intolerable. It was all Mint could do to keep from vomiting.

"The King would never allow that. Herb is his son." Mint finally replied, his face still calm, but his emotions were anything but. A dry rage burned in him. The pillar of his life had been pulled from under him, and he still wasn't sure how to react. But anger was beginning to grow.

Lime turned, his eyes fiercely trained upon his partner from birth. Tears trailed his cheeks unchecked as he glared up at his brother in arms. So long life had been easy going. Just follow Herb, trust him, and protect him with all that you are. That had been their mission. They were the best of the best from their respective lines, despite their young age. They had been Herb's guardians for eons.

Four days for a coming of age ceremony. Only four days had they left Herb's side. And now he was kidnapped by the enemy, while they discovered terrors they had never before contemplated, living right under their charge's footsteps. Under their own. Lime found himself wondering just how Herb could stand the pressure. The terror. Every single _day_ since he had acquired his Jusenkyo curse must have been a _nightmare. _Every night sleeping, horrified knowing that the next day he might wake up with a manacle shackled to his wrist, bound hand and foot and being carried to the kennels.

Kennels! They were god-dammed kennels! The building, that mystic place that boys dreamed of, where the women were trained. Taught to become beautiful and happy brides for new soldiers, and tamed from their 'so called' savage ways. All along the place had been a thrice damned torture chamber!

And they'd never even known. Hell before they'd been to Japan, they wouldn't have even cared... The truth was they had never thought about what happened there. And that too added to their guilt.

"The King allowed for Ranma-san to be broken! Ranma was as much a man as you or I! And Herb let it happen too... How? _Why?_ How could Herb have been so cruel? Especially with his own curse!" Lime bellowed, but Mint could tell the question was mostly rhetorical.

"Women are the enemies of Musk. They must be collared and tamed, lest they become rabid and warmongering creatures." Mint recited, a litany learned from classes as a child long ago. Then the man scoffed. "We learned what a load of hogs dung that was in Japan." Mint said calmly. "But... all the women here that we've ever met. They're all so _happy! _I always thought..._"_

"It's _all_ a lie." Lime broke in. "Everything we were taught as children. _All lie_s_!_ Wives aren't happy. Their broken. They're mad, driven insane in that wretched place. All of them wear manacles! Don't you see Mint? _We're_ the monsters! The _Musk_ are the war mongerers..."

Mint frowned and shook his head, disagreeing. "The Amazon's are no better than we. We know what they do to captives. Train them, and turn them into obedient lapdogs. We've seen proof of that! But..."

The unspoken question lingered in the air. _How is that any different from what we do? From our kennels._

Several hours had passed since they had finally witnessed the place from where women came. The prison grounds, behind the miles and miles of vast gardens kept by the wives of honored Musk soldiers. Of course, they hadn't known they were prison grounds. They hadn't ever known that women were tortured and degraded and beaten until their only belief was obedience or death.

Japan had changed Lime and Mint. Being retainers to Herb had changed them.

Both could remember a time when they had believed unmarried women to be demons. They were schaats. Cursed, foul creatures who hunted and killed good Musk men for sport. Beings who hungered for war at all times, and were only held at bay by the mighty soldiers like they had hoped to one day be. Had they never become the personal body guards to Herb, they would have gone on believing that. And when they saw women being tortured... when they witnessed them chained and brought to heel for their crimes, they would have cheered to learn how women were truly trained.

They would have cheered as their peers had. As the boys they had grown up with had, watching slave drivers push women along in chains. Whip them. Beat them, and make their beautiful eyes tear up...

Lime and Mint had been appalled. All they could see were innocent young women, being paraded on a stage like cattle or pets. They had met women who were simple happy people in Japan. Loving ones. Enjoyable to speak with. Afraid women. Warless folk. These were women they had met, and through that they had learned, and not cared, that women were a gentle folk. They'd been too obsessed with breasts to truly _see..._

And the guilt of knowing that they had kidnapped a woman from her home, to bring her to this kennel...? Lime felt torture in his soul, burning an ache in his chest that had never before been there.

"That girl. We thought we were bringing her to a paradise. After all, the married women and mothers are so happy! But... but it's all a goddamn lie!" Mint exclaimed, finally coming out of his despair, and following Lime's trail into blazing, undiluted anger.

"You are a lie!" The man screamed, raging at the tower of Ceira. The patron saint of women. The god who cared for the wretched souls of schaats in the hopes that they would come home and join the ways of the Musk. If such a god truly existed, Lime no longer believed in him.

"Calm down Mint." Lime said, his voice cold and distant.

Mint turned to the bigger man in rage. "How can you be calm! How can you _possibly_ be calm!" The faster man screamed, glaring at the other guardian of the Musk prince.

Lime turned to Mint, his eyes glinting with a rage and a sense of clarity that he had never known before. "Because I've already decided. I'm leaving the Musk."

Mint's eyes widened, for a moment in shock. But then, his disposition calmed as well and he nodded. "I'm going with you. But... where will we go?"

Lime's eyes widened in a bit of surprise. "You haven't already thought about it? We're going to rescue Herb. And then we're going to find out what the hell he was thinking when he imprisoned the red-haired girl. When he let us drag that poor girl from her home... when he... when... Gah!" The man trailed off, with a growl, anger finally edging out over his unusual self control. "We have to talk to him. He has a lot to answer for. And... and if his answers aren't good enough... then I'm going to give him back to the Amazons."

Few Musk had traveled to the lands of the Amazons on their own and returned to tell the tale...

...but if they were captured, would their fate be any less than they deserved?

Neither wanted to hear the answer that question. But both already knew what it was.

* * *

Aktaya walked along the path, Joketsuzoku now far in the distance behind her. Tir, too she'd left behind, knowing Ranma would take care of the boy, despite the angered words they'd exchanged. She already felt her heart ache for him, and worry for his safety, should she come to harm. Still, it was not likely that she would come across any real danger on this short trip. Jusenkyo lay deep in Amazon territory, and far from the Musk. The cursed springs where Ruby apparently had first become a woman, lay not more than a day's run from the heart of the city. She didn't expect much delay.

Just... she just needed proof. Something to at least help her try to understand. The Amazon's seemed to believe this legend as easily as they believed the sun would rise the next morning. None had been shy about it, save Chell for some odd reason. Jusenkyo, the cursed training ground, where anything that fell into a spring, took the body of whatever had drowned there last.

If it truly _was_ real... No. She didn't know how she would react. How could she? Would she be afraid of Ruby, if she discovered the girl had once been a man? Sadly, she couldn't be sure. She flinched a bit, not in fear but in anger, around even the most docile Amazon men. If Ruby, the strongest person she had _ever_ known, truly was such a creature, then she knew that feeling afraid of her wouldn't exactly be unwarranted.

But then, her mind traveled to the beautiful mane of red hair, and the luscious curves the girl now sported, and her mind turned to butter and honey. How could she fear something so soft and warm? How could she possibly fear someone who so clearly loved her?

She would just have to wait and see. She would find her answers. Jusenkyo awaited, and she was on her way.

Somehow, she would understand why Ranma was so strange.

Ranma.

That name had a nice ring to it.

**End Chapter Twelve**

**Author's Notes:** This chapter took _forever! _And hell there wasn't even all that much that happened. My initial plan was to have Aktaya Reach Jusenkyo in this chapter but the setup seemed nicer. So character development abounds. You've seen a bit more of our good friend Chell and learned a bit of what makes her tick. Ranma's pissed as all hell at everyone. We'll lighten up a bit on that next chapter.

_Sigh... _This story gets longer and longer by the day. You know that quote at the beginning of ever chapter? Yeah. Was supposed to finally occur in the next two... now I have to push it back _again. _Dammit, it keeps stretching out though. Plausibility. Its kicking me in the ass. I keep having to backstorybackstorybackstory in order to make these things work.

I hope you liked the limeony flavored goodness!

Ah well. I doubt any of you mind terribly over much. This story will inevitably stretch to 300,000 words before I hit the end it seems. I can't wait, but dragging through these boring character development scenes is rough. Hell I didn't even have a future scene in this one! Bah.

Well I suppose that's all I have to say. Sorry about the somewhat boring-ish chapter and please don't forget to _**Leave a Review!**_

_Till Next!_

_MB_


	14. From Battle's Edge

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, _many_ characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"  
— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter T****hirteen  
From Battle's Edge...**

_Looking back, I wonder if there was anything I could have done to stop what happened. I'm still quite sure there wasn't. The holes from nails still stung my feet. The feel of someone foreign using me as nothing more than a brood mother was as humiliating as it was painful, and as it was I had to have help to even walk. But... Sometimes I think if only I'd gone back. If only I had tried harder to reason with my father, perhaps..._

_I suppose it was better this way. Neither of these societies had much good to be said for them. Amazon's and their long-lived memories. Their training of men with the cages of Cyeed, was little different from what the Musk did to women. Less painful perhaps. A slower process which left a man's mind intact, instead convincing them that the Amazon way was the right way. Unlike the Musk, who broke the minds of their captives, usually in as little as a few short months._

_So, maybe it was better that they were destr- No. No. Nothing good can be said about the death of a child. Even an unborn babe. Many times my father had killed his grandchildren before but it had never mattered then. Somehow, when it was _Her_ child that died... I severed ties with my father that day. I wouldn't ever be a Musk again. And somehow that felt..._

_...wonderful.

* * *

_

Aktaya's feet crunched against the soft soil of this foreign land. Unaccustomed to the endless sea of sidewalks and concrete with which to use for balance, her feet found themselves more at home on grass, dirt, and the stumps beneath trees now. Her hand held aloft her massive broadsword, resting easily over her back shoulder in a battle stance made to convey lackadaisical diligence. Despite that, her mind was abuzz with information. And worse still, fear.

Of course, she'd grown _very_ good at managing fear.

A leap from the school room two stories up had strained her muscles more than she would've expected. Only a few weeks, maybe a month, since the war had ended, and she was already slackening in the physical department. Still, she'd found herself uncomfortable with the comfort of peace in the past fortnight. She'd become used to spending her days in the trenches so to speak.

But now she had enemies again... Now she felt home. The taste had lost the bitter, and now only carried the sweet tang of the rush. The sun was cresting down into night, and the sound of falling bits of drywood and plaster from the wall she'd destroyed gave the evening an almost comely feel to Aktaya. Ah, the battlefield. Home at last... Warm sun. Rocky, unnaturally flat ground. Deadly opponents. Rubble shifting behind her. Perfect weather for a life or death battle.

"Shuuma." She said, staring forward into the eyes of a lithe looking fighter who stood at least a foot taller than she. Black hair shaved on the sides into a sharp mohawk, he had razor sharp red eyes with a narrow face and chin. His head was cocked and the darkened look of undaunted hatred that Aktaya had never really seen leave his face was plastered there, as always. He wore a white vest which showed off a chest that would have been very attractive to her, had the circumstances been... _much_ different. Loose fitting pants and an obi that hung down over him with symbols of the phoenix etched down its slim coverings completed his outfit.

The man gave her a nod, and let the slightest hint of a smirk cross his face.

"Weiss." Her eyes turned to the other man, and her guard raised just a hair. The man, slimmer even than his partner, held one of those six foot spears the phoenix were so fond of jabbing in at sound barrier speeds. This man wore no shirt to speak of. A black mess of hair and unruly green eyes that seemed to see everything matched a pair of green pants and another obi similar to Shuuma's.

She knew both these men well. Neither looked young exactly, Shuuma looking maybe in his older thirties, while his brother was only a few years younger. Strong enemies they were, though bittersweet ones, in that they fought for a cause that Aktaya had trouble refuting. Enemies who didn't meet their end at the point of her broadsword tended to stick well in Aktaya's memory these days. Worse... these particular enemies would never stop hunting her. She could hardly begrudge them that after what she had done. But she would not let herself die at their hands...

...Even if she deserved it.

"I'd... hoped I would not see you again." Aktaya intoned gravely, staring at the black line scalding up Shuuma's left wing. A scar left by her broadsword. "After... after we last spoke, I thought maybe you had forgiven me." Echoes of her blade slicing through the feathered hides still wrung in her fingertips. Her sword would taste their blood again today. Their radiating anger pulsing around them was enough to prove that. But... maybe...?

Weiss snarled at her words but Shuuma seemed unaffected. "Quit playing games, Soldier." The red-eyed man stated. The words were half dead, spoken in a voice that wanted nothing more than to moan and weep in regret for lost days. But the man could not give up. As driven as Ranma had ever been, with a just cause, that he didn't wish to follow. "Today I have my vengeance." The words held little heat. Only cold hatred.

Aktaya stared at him. "We worked together once... can't I do anything to repay my debt? A thousand times over I regret that day. But I won't just let you kill me."

Shuuma grunted, his face taking on a haunted visage. "I've seen an unbelievable fighter in you, Soldier. Incredible talent for one so young... And honor too, is there within that cold heart of yours. An honorable man would do what is right, and fall on his spear. An honorable _woman_, would too."

A darkness crossed the horizon as it slowly went from field to battlefield. Opponents sizing up the grounds, the surroundings. Tasting the air for wind. Smelling the rage of the enemy, and predicting the attacks of the adversary. This was war. A fight that she knew she was, for once, on the wrong side of. Guilt was a far stronger enemy than these two... but she wouldn't let them kill her. Even if she deserved it. "I suppose I'm not so noble."

The words were a provocation, lifting the cork off the rage that seemed to be boiling off the younger man. Weiss rushed, his javelin loosed, cutting through the air as he leaped, wings propelling the faceted tip of his spear as it descended right behind the fletching on the back of the airborne javelin.

"Aktaya!" Came a shout from behind. Toya... the girl was going to be a liability soon. Inwardly, she prayed that the girl wouldn't get caught in their crossfire, but she'd seen too many atrocities now for her to trust any sort of deity to protect them.

Her eyes followed the javelin's flight with acute accuracy gleaned from eons of training. The throw, quick as light to be sure, seemed slow to her eyes. She who had faced the lord of the phoenix himself and lived to tell the tale? This was child's play. Almost carelessly, she batted the javelin aside, catching the metal tip with her sword four feet before it would have run her through. Three feet of wooden spike splintered at the impact, thudding broken and useless against one of the school lawn's many trees.

She twisted sideways, her body slipping around the oncoming thrust of Weiss's spear tip. One hand relinquished its grip on the soft leather of her obscenely large blade's hilt and snagged the spearman's forearm and wrenched it over her body to send him rolling away into the dirt. She grinned, temporarily safe seeing her fallen opponent, and noting that Shuuma had refrained from attacking.

"You've gotten slower, Weiss." It was a lie. The man's strike had been twice as fast as it once had been. It wouldn't do to let him _know_ that though. "Or maybe I've gotten too fast for you."

Taunting Weiss was much easier. She owed Shuuma's younger brother nothing. He was a fighter, trying to kill her for Shuuma's reasons. It was not him she had wronged so terribly. Her entire style, learned from Ranma during their long treks in China had taught her to taunt. And for Weiss, she felt no guilt... Shuuma was another story.

Her eyes turned to the elder brother to find him darting towards her with a new speed that eclipsed Weiss by miles. She was faster still, her style based on speed despite her weapon choice. She planted the broadsword's point to the ground ducking behind it, and Shuuma's foot slammed into the flat side of her sword with a staggering clang.

Instantly she stood, withdrawing her blade from the ground and in an upward slash that sheered the thin layer of beard off the phoenix's chin. Her sword high, she wrapped it full circle, following the momentum, she twirled the blade for another shearing uppercut.

Shuuma recovered with a quick backstep, dodging both cuts narrowly before laying on the offensive once more. Caught with her sword held high, Aktaya was forced to backpedal as Shuuma and attacked again with a fierce determination. A flurry of punches and kicks rained down on her and she felt each of them reverberate across her, her blade fumbling in her grip. Her left arm blocked while her right tried to recover and prepare a counter chop with the blade still high. Her feet held firm to the ground below as a solid right hook clipped her shoulder and she winced. Another smashed her blocking arm purposefully. Her body slid back, her feet raking trenches in the concrete below at the force of the devastating blow, and her forearm _burned_. Her eyes watered in pain, but she refused to let it touch her. Pain was as much an enemy as the phoenix and Shuuma wasn't pulling his punches. Not at all.

Meanwhile, Weiss recovered from sprawl and took to the sky flapping his wings in a wild mesh of feathers. Taking high, the phoenix reached a point well over the trees while Aktaya warded off punches that could splinter steel. Aktaya was aware of these things. Senses honed from training endlessly with the greatest martial artist to have ever lived had taught her to know her surroundings as intimately as she knew her own body. But she was not perfect...

"Kyaaa!" The airborne warrior called before closing his wings and letting gravity take hold, beginning an intense dive, his long spear aimed for her heart once again.

The cry stalled her for a moment and she turned and rolled out of the way of the diving warrior. Successfully avoiding the dive, she ambled almost directly into the line of a heavy haymaker from Shuuma. The blast buffeted her backwards stripping her of breath. She gagged on air her stomach writhing as she landed on her back skidding along the trimmed grass, but the attack was not over. In desperation she rolled, scabbing her face along the dirt, and feeling the gust of pressure as Shuuma's follow up kick grafted a crater into the ground where her body had been seconds before.

Still coughing, catching her breath she rolled onto her back. Above her Shuuma stood, a malicious grin plastered across his face. His knee hovered in the air, his right foot already falling to pound her into the ground once again. She writhed, her lithe stomach snakily avoiding his foot. Weaving she dodged his follow up punch, smiling as his knuckles hit the ground. Dirt scattered through the air, and the grass beneath her broke into yet another solid circular crater at the impact.

A quick backflip, she leaped over Shuuma's follow up, leg sweep. Again she was on her feet, sword in hand once more. Her breath was almost returned to her as she faced her opponent once more, ready to engage...

"S-stop! What are you doing!" Came a shout from Toya. Aktaya couldn't help giving the short haired girl the slightest glance. It seemed she had apparently recovered from her shock and was just exiting the school's entrance in the distance.

High above Weiss was preparing for a second dive, hiding himself well in the light of the sun. But she felt him. His angry ki raged like a typhoon above her. Didn't these foolish phoenix understand subtlety? She could probably dodge the damn bastard blindfolded!

But this was no time for her to be cocky...

Shuuma had ceased his advance for a mere moment. Watching, he saw the flash of worry and the subtle glance Aktaya had given the other Japanese girl. Catching on far too quickly for a damn phoenix, the man smiled at her. She shivered.

"Don't you dare..." She hissed easing her grip on the blade in preparation for a run.

His smile turned malicious and he disengaged, dashing towards Aktaya's old friend.

Aktaya surged forward, her mind intent on keeping Toya safe at all costs. Her broadsword descended crashing down upon Shuuma's turned back. She would kill this man... then the guilt wouldn't plague her! Then she wouldn't have to worry every time Ranma dug at her horrid secret. Wouldn't have to fear him finding out what a monster she'd become!

But it wasn't to be. She halted mid-swing and leaped. Her legs whirled in a midair cartwheel as Weiss sailed beneath her, his second falcon-esque dive missing same as the first, taking back to the sky in fury. But the dive had distracted her for long enough. Shuuma's retreat covered, he'd been given the time and the head-start he'd needed.

"No!" Aktaya exclaimed, as she watched the man reach her young friend. "Toya!"

"Wh-what're you-? Stop!" Toya jerked away, sudden fear shaping her visage. Shuuma grabbed for her, and Toya swatted at his approaching hand.

Shuuma almost giggled as he caught her by the wrist, and pulled, entrapping both her arms as if she were a child. His left hand easily wrapped around the girl's wrists and lifted her bodily into the air, leaving her feet to dangle inches above the ground. "C-cut it out!" The girl screamed, while kicking her feet uselessly. "You jackass! I-!" Abruptly her voice was silenced by the touch of a hooked dagger sliding up against her throat.

Aktaya could only watch in mute horror, too slow to stop him.

"What'll it be, Soldier? You die. Or she dies. Your choice." Shuuma stated even as Weiss flapped down, his wings blowing dirt and dust around in a flurry beside his brother. A concerned look on his face as he stared at his brother, and the dagger pressed against the innocent girl's weak little neck.

"Shuuma...? This is..." Weiss slurred, his emotions warring between keeping his guard up from Aktaya, and wondering what his brother was doing. The younger brother's anger had faded to shock, as he watched Shuuma press the dagger's sharp edge closer to the innocent girl's neck.

"A-Aktaya...?" The terrified girl whimpered piteously, her eyes searching out the one-eyed girl pleadingly. "Wh-what is... a-aahh!" Her voice rose as the dagger ground more roughly into her throat.

Aktaya had lost before she had even begun.

_'What would Ruby do...? Gods, what would Ranma do?' _Aktaya's mind screamed but the conclusion had already been reached. The answer, given. Her mind reached back for a memory, long ago, when she was held in the very throne room of Tsingtao himself. Pregnant and strung up hanging by her arms, Ruby had been brought to her. Unbreakable, unbreakable Ruby... she'd taken the Musk collar that day. For Her. For Aktaya, the Ruby had broken. Now it had come full circle...

"Please... don't hurt her." Her sword fell to the ground with a clatter, and her dagger dropped from her hands, burying its blade in the dirt. The pleading she placed in her eyes disgusted her, but she couldn't let them kill Toya. If... if she truly had to die today...

The phoenix warrior's hand shook with rage. "You... ask me not to hurt one you care for? _Yes?" _The man hissed. His eyes blazed with rage, and his ears singed. "You have the nerve to ask...? After what you've done! After... after what happened in Shai Cang? You would let yourself die for her? Ha! As if I'd believe you have a heart. Never trust the Soldier..."

His hands were shaking. The snags and tears her sword had inflicted on his white vest gave him an almost mangy, insane look.

"Shuuma, you can't do this... You don't kill innocents bystanders. I... I've seen a good person in you! L-leave her out of this. Please... Look I..." She spoke. The words seemed to only further enrage him though, as his hand began to shake. Feathers fell from his taut wings and his eyes burned.

"_You_ started this! You taunt us as if what happened in Shai Cang was a joke! Like it was a game... while I've lost everything! Well... well, I'd say it's about time I took something back! Its time you learn how it feels to lose someone!"

Even Weiss was looking edgily at his brother, now. The mania in his voice scared him. "Shuuma..."

"I know!" She screamed, her words stopping him from laying the blade further into the girl's neck. In the sparse second, she withdrew her own dagger and laid it to her own throat. "Please... you're hurting her."

Aktaya drowned in memory. Her guilt flowed. Never trust the Soldier. A phrase the phoenix had taken to heart when she had fought them. One heinous act that could not be forgotten. Shai Cang... Regret and guilt had accompanied her ever since, like a raincloud that never stopped drenching her. One act, committed in rage and a loss of self control that had destroyed the lives of hundreds... But now was not the time for old memories.

Toya let loose a scream as blood flowed red down her neck, but only a small stream. Shuuma's face tinged with mania, was not the sad anger she had seen so many times before. An older face seemed to lie there. A deader face... a face as drowned in memories as her own. Filled with hatred, hatred... only hatred. His hands shook, clearly with self hatred at what he was doing.

Aktaya fell to her knees, her hand outstretched, beckoning. _"P-please..."_

"She'll go... Do it Soldier. Cut with that knife of yours and she'll be safe... I want to see you _bleed._"  
_  
"A-Aktaya?" _Toya whimpered. Oh sweet angel of innocence.  
_  
_A whisper. A nightmare. Aktaya, the Soldier. Aktaya the highschool girl. Neither could stand to see the girl before her killed because of her. A tear of fear, and of regret at the cruel irony trailed her cheek, mimicking the red stream of blood just beginning to trickle down her own neck. "Alright..."

Abruptly Shuuma's wrist jerked away from Toya's bleeding neck. It snapped at an odd angle with the sound of a cracked bone accompanied by his guttural scream. The phoenix dropped the girl just as quickly, grabbing his wrist and holding it in shock, gritting his teeth. His brother stared down at him in surprise, and turned away from Aktaya to face something she couldn't see behind them. Aktaya watched a piece of wood clatter to the ground at the man's feet. A kendo stick? Had someone thrown a kendo stick... at Shuuma's _wrist?_

It didn't matter for the moment. At Shuuma's cry, Toya fell to the ground, clutching her bleeding neck; she was still breathing, and very much awake... _'Just a flesh wound.' _Aktaya thought joyously, in the sparse milliseconds between noticing her chance to rescue the girl, and taking it._  
_  
The Soldier moved like lightning. Grabbing up her sword, she jetted across the expanse between them before Weiss could even blink. He only barely dodged the swing of her broadsword, instinct alone saving him from being cleaved in two.

Twisting, she placed herself between Shuuma and Toya, and pivoted to face the current threat of his brother. Using the momentum gained from her swing, Aktaya spun and raised the sword high. A distraction, that worked wonders as his eyes followed the dangerous metal, not noticing her other outstretched hand, relieved of the dagger and preparing... She concentrated, drawing the energy from her depths in moments and pushing it forth into her arm. It swirled within her, traveling through her like the touch of wind shivering down the whole of her body. The bliss of power unknown, channeled into a reckoning...

"_Arc._"

A static _screech _burst through the ears of all present, stopping the hearts of any in ear shot with the intimidation and terror the whip crack sound created. Arc was the name she'd given her attack, crafted on that battlefield at Kinagoda so long ago. A plain attack. A sharp burst of energy that could be used in an instant, it's boom a sound to make jet engines weep in envy.  
_  
The attack she'd used to slaughter children and... _

_"No!" _She firmly told herself. Now was not the time to dwell on that...

The electric surge of blue power exploded like a plasmatic bomb. It was not enough to kill either of these two men, but she watched as they rocketed away like missiles. Shuuma slammed into the black iron bars of the school gate, permanently disfiguring them while Weiss bashed through a tree, and onward into the school building. The heap of rubble left behind from when she'd sliced out the wall of the second floor crumbled onto him.

Aktaya noticed the tree Weiss had smashed through falling, tumbling down atop her. A weight heavy enough to crush cars and buildings alike, falling like a giant tower. She listened to the cracking wood as the great thing gained momentum, about to crush her and Toya together.

And she judged it unworthy.

A swipe of her wrist and suddenly the tree- leaves, branches, and all -was hurtling towards Shuuma and the broken iron bars that he still lay entangled within. It bouldered into him, ripping the iron posts from the ground in a miasma of iron and wood, utterly destroying the once pristine gate.

"A...ckk! D-damn you witch!" Weiss hissed from his place in the pile of rubble near the building. His voice halted and she watched fear cloud his eyes as she leveled her blade at him. In the background, the tree fell away from Shuuma showing a scathed, half dead body, wings barely fit for flight. The man was all but defeated. Defeated once again. Aktaya didn't have to look; his dwindling ki told her he was on the edge of consciousness.

Slowly, Aktaya backed away, suddenly aware of another presence beside her. A man clad in a blue kendo outfit, and holding a wooden katana, of all things. At first glance she thought he was an idiot, standing protectively near her and Toya, wielding a piece of wood, when bladed weapons were in play. But she'd heard the snap of Shuuma's wrist. He'd broken a fully fledged phoenix warrior's wrist by throwing one of those. His ki burned brightly. Perhaps not a warrior, but a man well versed in the ways of fighting at the very least. Maybe not so stupid after all...

"May you burn forever, _Soldier._" The younger phoenix spat, regaining his courage as he stood. Hobbling slowly to his brother, his spear never relaxed its point away from her. She let him walk, unhindered by anything but his busted limbs, to reach his brother, and rub at the half conscious man's shoulder. His glare for Aktaya never faltered. "I swear, I will kill you someday..." He hissed, kneeling defensively by his brother.

Grief was a sad emotion that cut like a dagger. It brought people to rage and hatred that they had never before known, and it had done so to these two. Good people they were; good men, driven insane by rage against a target that could not claim full blame. But they had stepped too far. And with a mere glance towards thin trail of blood flowing down Toya's neck, Aktaya knew what had to be done.

One learned to weep for the rabid dog. Mourned its passing with regret and remorse that only added to older guilts. But the weeping began only after it had been put down.

"No, Weiss." She stated calmly. _"You won't."_

Wiess's guard stiffened, and he gave a sneer, still shaking his brother. An edge of worry crept into his tongue, and she noticed the slightest flicker of his spearpoint. Unsteady. Unprepared. It was time.

"Three times I've bested you and your brother, Weiss." She spoke harshly, her tone cold. "What happened at Shai Cang was an accident. Three times, I've let you live when I could have killed you because of that. We worked together once... Today your brother crossed the line. You won't threaten the ones I love for a mistake I can't stop hating myself for."

With her words, Aktaya began her stride forward. Her blade phased around her, shimmering as she moved it with techniques of her own creation. She drew ki to her feet. To her arms and legs, and surged them into her weapon en masse. She felt rather than saw the aura of cold dedication she'd often shown.

Weiss eyes widened. But his spear only shook more, signaling how unready he was. They were unparalleled fighters. But few could face the Soldier without a measure of fear and awe. "Y-you can't-!"

"Goodbye, Weiss."

She blitzed, phasing out of his vision completely.

_"NO-!"_

His last word was silenced with a harsh scream and the sound of a soft slice as her blade sunk into his chest. Just as quickly she slid the great sword out from his body and sheathed it in Shuuma's broken form, drawing a spray of blood, which covered the remains of the black iron fence. The man jerked awake, a dazed sort of shocked vision. Anger blurred over his features. But... then a smile.

_"I-I can see them! Oh... Gerin my boy! My... dear S-Seiika! I... I..."_ His words were muffled by the blood in his mouth.

Ever so slowly, his smile disturbingly rapturous, his eyes fluttered shut.

"We... could've been friends. But you went too far Shuuma." She murmured, not caring about the blood dampening her outfit, or the stares of her two companions. The dead were to be honored. "May your gods guide you; may your peace, forever be."

Aktaya embraced her ki once more, lifting the bent, bloody bars off Shuuma's body. Touching the ground, she carved from it two large patches of earth, as she had done so many times in the long course of the last year and a half. Kneeling down, she placed her arms under the bloodied body of Weiss, and carried him to the first pit, gently laying him in the earth as Toya and the unknown man watched her. She followed suit with Shuuma, no more caring for the blood now than she had been before. When it was all done, she again used her ki to scrape the broken earth back over them, turning the school yard into a grave.

She knelt before them, and closed her eyes. Offering a silent prayer atop her vocal one.

It was not long before two others slowly approached, and knelt beside her.

Aktaya tried but she couldn't hold them in. Tears leaked down her cheeks as she whispered. _"I'm sorry Shuuma... I'm so, so sorry." _

The sun set.

The wind blew on...

"Thank you... for rescuing Toya. If you hadn't arrived, more than one soul would've been stained today." Aktaya voiced to the unknown man, who still held his sword as if ready to use it.

He hesitated, glancing worriedly down at her. "I had assumed I was defending the weaker party; the innocent one." He said calmly after a moment of thought. "Now I am not so sure..."

_"What... Who were they...?" _Interrupted the girl to her left. The words were light. Fearful, but not afraid. Terrified, fighting terror. Toya shook even kneeling as she was beside Aktaya and turned to look at her, asking the question, with a goodly measure of fear for, and of, her old friend. The man to Aktaya's right remained silent, his eyes probing for the same answers, as to whether he'd done what was right, or defended the wrong party.

Perhaps he had.

"I... first met Shuuma and his brother Weiss..."

**"...about a year and five months ago."

* * *

**

Tsingtao wanted to kill someone. This was rare in and of itself, as he didn't revel in death. No good Musk truly should enjoy ending a human life. However, one did what had to be done. Amazons were hardly human anyways, and they had to be destroyed. So far, his plan to eradicate them had been unsuccessful. The scouts had reported no sightings of the fire-haired Ruby. No ransom had been placed on his son, and so far his expectations had not panned out.

A frustrating and very, very rare experience. Tsingtao had a habit of knowing what people would do in a situation that wouldn't rise for years to come, and he knew Ruby. The girl was an open book, her emotions and every though splayed for the world to view. So, why hadn't the girl done as expected? Why had she remained in the Amazon village? The girl was a do-gooder. A right above all, and most importantly she was Japanese. The Japanese were a strange people, taken with beliefs in equality. Tsingtao had expected the girl to take offense to his son being captured. Especially since that same son had been the one who had let her go free.

He'd expected her to break the boy out. Or at least attempt to.

But she had not. Scouting falcons had reported sighting her far within the village, from their vantage high above, disguised with the magics of Jusenkyo. Tsingtao had but two hopes. Either the girl was waiting to have her child before attempting, or that she simply did not _know_ the Amazons held Herb captive.

Either way, the wait was becoming far too long. He had great confidence in his youngest son, and knew the boy could hold out against harsh tortures, but no one was invincible. If he waited much longer it was likely that the boy would be a broken puppy, and it would be years before he would fully recover, especially with that damnable curse.

Striding through one of the long corridors in a palace owned by one of his lead advisers, Tsingtao pushed on a heavy brown oak door. The hinges broke with ease, and the door smashed into the room. A small squawk yelped from the other side, and Tsingtao smiled, satisfied. He _had _wanted to kill someone. Idle curiosity made him lift the door to see a once beautiful woman crushed between it and the wall inside the room.

"Muun Tsa." Tsingtao uttered, his voice gaining in temerity as he turned to look in on the rooms only living occupant.

"My King?" The reply was drawled as if the man was annoyed at being bothered. Well, it was rather late in the evening; late enough to be called early in fact, and most men didn't like their women being crushed by broken doors. Ah well. Perhaps this would ease the old sorcerer's mind.

"Gather your men. The armies march at dawn."

Muun Tsa looked an old man, a scruffy white beard covering the area just beneath his chin. He was tall, muscular, and surprisingly... _active_... for being two centuries old. Then again, his area of expertise did involve rituals and such, and women featured quite prominently in them. He now stood next to a chalkboard, writing ancient scribbles of the forgotten Tsoldied language. Potions bubbled and broiled in glass vials all about the room and the man had a couple of stains on his face. Over two hundred years old, Muun Tsa was descended from the owls. Wise, sometimes beyond even Tsingtao at four hundred years his senior, the man was never happy and never smiled.

But now he did.

"With _pleasure_... And do send young Tara to me before the sun rises? I was quite enjoying that girl before you killed her. Would not do for me to start my magics with an unsatisfied palette." The old man stated, hardly turning away from his writings.

The king smiled. The list of people who could tell him to do something and escape with their lives was a small one, but luckily this man made the cut. A friend since birth, Tsingtao had been the old man's Nearman. He had also killed the boy's schaat mother at a young age, and watched him grow into a man, and age till death neared. He'd been there when Muun had taken to sorcery, and encouraged his study of the deep magics.

Now he was old. Far from immortal, the man was on his last legs. Yet he would live. Another fifty years he could probably ring out of this short life. Tsingtao would feel a great sadness upon the man's death. Grief akin to the loss of his own son even. But still. The man's magics had proven useful. Disguising hundreds of thousands of soldiers had been Muun Tsa's doing. As had the great underground where his army spanned for mile after countless, countless mile…

Though, at being curtly told to send one of his own personal girls to the man's service, Tsingtao contemplated cutting off the man's arm. He didn't though. Threats had little effect one nearing death, and Tsingtao would do as this older looking man asked. After all, what were friends for? Only elder men gave him any form of friendship. Sorcery had never been his forte, but gathering into his heart those who could use the magics of olden days had been one of the first things Tsingtao had done. Muun Tsa was now the best sorcerer since Monk Effey.

"Return her in decent condition old man; she is quite pretty." Tsingtao said with a laugh. "Remember. Dawn."

The time for war was at hand. Thirty five hundred thousand men would march to the Amazon's heart. Then, he'd release his _real_ army.

"My son... I will not let you die. Don't be afraid. Your father will not let you die." Tsingtao murmured to himself as he began the long walk to his chambers.

Stepping out into the night sky, Tsingtao grinned, basking in the splendor of his creation. The sorcerer's palace, high on the tallest mountain gave a spectacular view of the Musk Valley. Seven cities filled to the brim with the best soldiers the world over. Watch towers loomed over every mountain, shining brightly against the moonlit background of the great Tower of Ceira, its top peeking out over the crests of two other mountains in the distance. Women, constantly bearing more and more soldiers for his masterpiece, addled below, still busy with their gardening even this late in the eve. A _neverending_ army that had been growing for hundreds of years. Numbers almost uncountable resided in the valley and surrounding areas to the north and west, and even _that_ was nothing compared to what lie _beneath_ the valley.

But that was for another day.

The intense beam of a full moon glittered down on the spacious gardens between the sorcerer's palace hut and the kennels. Walking down the vast slope of the mountain was no difficulty for him, and he felt joy as he viewed the endless rows of plants grown even as frost licked the edges of his territory with their cold clutches, ensuring his army was well fed.

Nearing mid way down the mountain, Tsingtao detoured on a whim, entering the kennel Borage had once been master of. The salutes of the trio of guards at the doors invigorated him. As did the moans and wailing echoing up from the torture chambers as he walked passed.

He stopped, suddenly, at one particular door, motioning the guard to open it. The boy, not old by any means, had been awake and alert, and had reacted well to the presence of his kind, even though it was likely he'd never seen Tsingtao before.

He stepped inside the room, listening to the shuffle of prisoners as they scampered away, hoping to be ignored by whoever was entering. A filthy place. A necessary place. Straw wet with sweat and long hours of sleeping bodies littered the rooms and the stench of schaat waste brought a ting of disgust to Tsingtao's nose, but he bore it.

Striding inside, he stared down into one particular cell, ignoring the confused looks of the schaat now residing within.

"Ruby... Such an amazing soul." He murmured in awe, staring at the newly welded bars. Only short weeks ago this cell had been unusable. The bars had been sliced by a girl who had overcome the training power of eight shackles. The Musk had tried to imprison a goddess and the goddess had found Tsingtao's tethers wanting.

Not again. She wouldn't find herself underestimated again.

Perhaps he had been thinking wrongly, even with the dragon. Perhaps _human_ was the most powerful species? Well... time would tell.

Turning away, Tsingtao left the room, this time moving for another. Borage's antechamber. He stopped in the small room, again flagging down attentive guards to gain access. He glance around staring at the many shelves dotting it which contained the trinkets of his sons. Ruby's Dragon Whisker hair-tie, a particular pair of Marjoram's clawed weapons, and several vials of poisons. A staff Herb was particularly fond of lay in the corner, collecting cobwebs. A few severed heads and ears clearly belong to Borage, were a small irony when one noticed the man's severed phallus laying in a jar on a shelf above them.

One particular object held his interest, though. One object valued greater than any he yet possessed. Standing before the gold crafted ornament pulled from the very annuls of history, he stroked the inscription on the sides of the golden cornet, reading their precious lines in awe. _"The sky sings to my Melody."_

Oh yes. The Amazons would fall... and his son would be rescued. If his initial plan did not work? Well. There was always another plan.

* * *

Ruby was worried. Hell Ruby was fucking terrified. And the biggest problem of all was that she was stressed. Unbelievably so.

"Waaaghghh!" Came the cry of the baby she'd been single handedly caring for the past two days. The scream was lightly tinged with anger and a slight bit of loneliness. That signified that the boy had probably dirtied the burlap diaper-_ again!_ -and of course, that he missed his mother.

Hell, she was starting to miss the girl too. She knew their fight had been bad. But the girl hadn't even shown her face for two days. Was she really this angry? It was good to know that she trusted Ranma with little Tir but...

_'Where the hell is she?' _Ruby thought abysmally as she lumbered her massive belly around to the young boy, and began to fiddle with his clothes, sniffing the air for the tell-tale signs that she would have to get her hands dirty again. Surprisingly they weren't there, and she had guessed wrongly. Honestly, she'd gotten pretty good at caring for the little tyke and pretty well knew his needs. Burping him. Feeding him. Changing him. They all came naturally after a while, and as the boy grew he became simultaneously easier and harder to handle.

Easier, because she was learning how to take care of him. How to... how to be... a mother she supposed.

Harder because her own child was on his way. The kicks were becoming almost constant, and she felt pangs of sympathy for her own mother, wondering if she had been anything like this on the woman called Nodoka Saotome. Frankly, the Chestnut Fist was easy. Killing Hornets without getting stung was easy. This shit was _hard._

Every day she grew more tired, and yet more alive all at the same time. More... _more aware! _A _life_ was inside her! A child with a future ahead of him... a child that was hers and hers alone. She could train him to be a great martial artist, or she could take him back to Japan... send him to schools, and make sure he wasn't a socially inept little bastard like she had been. He would grow... she could see herself training him. Watching him become rebellious... one day surpassing her as her age slowly began to wane away from 'young.'

She often started, finding herself grinning at nothing, stupidly staring into the future with blank eyes and hopeful dreams that left this wretched place behind. Old faces and childish battles haunted her dreams. Fighting Ryoga for the sheer joy of knowing who was better. Battling Genma because he had stolen her fucking pickle. Poking fun at Akane's cooking, and tasting Ukyo's okonomiaki... These things taunted her, and she ached for home. For a safe place to raise her still nameless boy.

But then she remembered her duty and her oath. No matter what it took... she would see the Musk destroyed. She _had to. _

That, and she could never forget Tir. He was just as much her son as her unborn child would be. And Aktaya... Aktaya was... was something.

Love? Was this love? If the ache in her heart at seeing the girl angry, or the utter terror slowly creeping up her spine at the thoughts that she had endangered herself were any indication... yes. Maybe she was in love. But she wasn't sure. She'd hardly ever known what a _friend _was, let alone a lover.

_'Her lips. her luscious breasts... the way her fingers feel when she...!' _Ruby snapped her train of thought away from that. Honestly, she'd been angry at the girl for some reason that had seemed direly important at the time. But the passing of a day had made her forget what their argument was even about, and by the second day she _longed_ for her wayward companion.

So there was only one option.

She sighed a dismal sigh as she fitted herself into the jerkin and dress of an Amazon who was preparing to bring new life to this world. Glancing across herself, she snorted at the spectacle she looked now that her child had finally decided to start giving her the swollen look of a truly pregnant woman. Curse the boy. But she supposed it had to happen sooner or later.

Sighing tiredly, angrily, she finished dressing Tir in a tiny pair of surprisingly modern looking overalls. If overalls could be called modern at any rate. Then, steeling herself for what would be the third time she'd shown her face among the throng of Amazons of Joketsuzoku, she lifted the boy and walked out.

Shyly, almost curiously, she peeked out her cabin door. Then, she stepped out and onward, plodding down the steep slope of the last hill on the west side of Joketsuzoku.

The place was positively bustling. Carts and wagons rolled hither and to, and the cries of farmers trading their rice for ale or clothes or other niceties. The ever present clash of steel and wood hummed from a little to the north where training took place at all hours of the day and night. Periodically Ruby could hear the sharp _thunks_ of arrows sliding into targets. Pained voices of fighters and women engaged in duel and dance echoed all around her.

Above bridges at all levels connected trees to each other in an endless series of pathways, spiral staircases and higher than ground level homes. Amazons used every feasible level for living, and packed themselves tight. Each tree had its own home built into the trunk somewhere near the top, with its own spiderweb of bridges leading away to other tress. Staircases left hanging from still higher branches, that spiraled down the tree's trunk were the only way up to most them. Commerce and life seemed to flow through every inch of this great forested city.

And it was only a time till that great throng of people noticed her. The whispers began.

"The Ruby..." Was the first recognition that had risen to touch her, but that grew. As she walked, her belly now seemingly massive compared to only a few short weeks ago, she felt surprise and shock from those who hadn't known she was with child beforehand.

Still more shock at seeing her carry her son in her arms.

"By god, the Ruby is with child!" One voice cried. A grin hovered on the face of a young bulky Amazon whom Ruby thought she'd spotted at the Battle of Kinagoda down behind the gate.

"You farmers and your rubbish!" Came the cry of a thin, lithe Joketsuzoku fighter. Beautiful, Ranma instantly classified her as a great fighter, based solely on the sheer number of weapons the girl concealed. Eighteen knives. And that was _without_ the hidden weapons skill which most amazons knew.

"There is no way that _she_ is the Ruby!" No discernible face could be put to the cutting phrase, but it was nowhere near the least insulting of their words.

"I tell you, sister! She _is_ the Ruby! She fights... even now, when no other would. Do you see her skin, how it glows?" A voice asked melodramatically.

Abruptly, the glow beneath Ruby's skin gained an abundant amount of pink, showcasing her embarrassment for the world to see. A few of the watchers giggled and her cheeks flushed a bright crimson. Still she padded on through the work horses and wagons carrying crops, dead meat, wood, stone and other such things.

"Ruby! Forward the Amazon Dream!"

A cry arose at that and Ruby's cheeks flushed even further. Her pace quickened but the cheers of the people of Kinagoda grew louder as even Joketsuzoku folk joined in.

At least this time they were content to simply _look_ at her. Rather than the strange half awed touching they had committed once before. It wasn't everyday that a hero arose among amazons. They were where heroes- well female heroes -were born and trained, and if everyone was strong, strength no longer impressed them.

Ruby had, though. Word of her deeds was spreading. She didn't like it, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

_'What if they find out I'm not a girl?'_ She shivered at the thought, and put it out of her mind.

Her eyes were locked on a large emerald colored pavilion, behind which stood a massive tree. The tree had been hollowed out eons ago, and ladders, walkways, paths, and even whole houses had been carved into the sides of its momentous trunk, supported by poles and ropes and superior craftsmanship. The houses of elders.

At the lowest end of the tree and actually a good several paces to the left stood the home of Jai Alai. No elder, no matter who or what their status, lived without a home. If their home was destroyed, a lower Amazon would give up their house and build another. It was considered a great _great_ honor to give ones house to an elder, and was capable of propelling the status of a lesser Amazon to one with a say in the ways of great things. A low end merchant might suddenly find her customers doubled or even tripled with the action. A scout would find herself receiving safe missions or if she preferred, more dangerous. Honor counted for much among the Amazons.

Jai Alai's particular house was a solid hut on the ground level, one of the few in fact. But since the old woman had trouble drawing forth much ki through her manacles she was unable to attempt the high leaps that most elders would do without thought. A ground-level home had been necessary.

Ignoring the whispers, Ruby ambled up to the door, fiddling with Tir and shuffling the sleeping boy into her left arm. Knocking thrice, she only waited a moment before a shuffling came from inside, along with the door cracking.

"Oh, Ruby!" The woman cried in delight as the door opened fully to reveal the old woman. "And young Tir!"

Ruby smiled at the woman and inclined her head slightly. "I... haven't really seen you since that day in the Healers Hut. I... figured I'd drop by."

The old woman laughed in a sardonic voice as she leaned back and gestured the redhead to walk in. "Don't be silly girl. Young people don't visit the old unless they want something. I know this as well as any elder. What is it? Training? Council about the newborn? Let this old woman hear your woes."

Ruby grinned. It was a good thing the elder was so straightforward. Quite the opposite of Ku Lon really. Jai Alai had the old woman's voice and almost no personality quirks that mirrored Xian Pu's great grandmother. Also, the woman was at least twice Ku Lon's height.

"I... am worried. But not about those things." Ruby replied as she took a seat in one of the plush armchairs crafted of leather wrapped hen feathers and woven straw.

"Well what troubles you my dear?" Jai Alai asked with a grandmotherly smile. God the old woman was good at those.

"I... Aktaya. She's been... she's been missing for almost two days now. And I don't know where she is. We got in a fight about... about something, and she left. I know she was mad at me, but I didn't think she would stay away for so long. I'm... just wondering if you might've spotted her?" Ruby asked. Her skin had faded to an almost natural looking off red color. One saved for the mixture of concern and love, tinged lightly with the deep blue of worry.

The old woman had a grin on her face at the request, and she did not let it go as she responded, despite the seriousness of Ruby's questioning.

"Ah. Love." Were the words she gave.

There was a time when Ruby would have felt embarrassed by the pretentious comment. That time had long passed.

"Yeah..." The redhead replied. It was awkward. The admission clumsy but no less true. "Yeah, I do."

"Well then..." The elder trailed, the smile drooping as she realized Ruby was truly serious. "You are in luck. As I was listening to one of elder Ku Lon's stories some days ago I spotted the girl talking to Chell."

Ruby's eyes narrowed and her skin suddenly blared a seething red. "Chell. God Dammit." She hissed scathingly.

"I heard. The poor girl came to me bawling. It seems it is quite difficult to stay in your good graces, my dear. Or perhaps I should say young man?" The woman replied with a bit of humor and only a hint of a question, as she watched Ruby stand, still holding Tir.

"I... No. Might as well stick with 'my dear.' I'm a woman among women now it seems." With a gesture that alluded to the shouts and cheers still raging lightly outside.

"Arrogant too. How quaint." Jai Alai barbed. The three manacles she wore clashing with Amazon bracelets echoed with the sounds of her laughter. Ruby felt guilty slightly about coming and leaving so quickly, but it seemed she had to talk to Chell.

"I... I'm sorry. Sorry to leave so fast but I have to-!"

"Oh don't be a fool, girl. Go on. Go on. I know I can't stop you... but if I may? Go easy on Chell. She wished for her words back with all her heart, and the greatest of people, both man and woman, have it in them to make mistakes. And to forgive." The elder intoned, finally showing the wisdom that elders seemed known for spouting. Ruby knew in her mind that the old woman was right. That Chell deserved a chance to remedy her words.

But Ruby couldn't help but recall the malice in that tone. The stench of betrayal on the green haired woman's tongue had stung her, and days later it still burned hotter than the chair she'd set aflame.

"I'll... try." That was the best she could give.

The old woman seemed to accept that, as Ruby stood and left, careful once more not to wake the sleeping boy. Again she walked the streets towards Chell's training ground. A crack of thunder peeled through the relative jabber of the regular folk. Far above the deep canopy of endless green trees she heard the tell tale claps of falling rain.

* * *

Aktaya had not been planning on getting _lost_ when she'd left for Joketsuzoku. Frankly, while leaving the city the path had been perfectly clear. A wide road, a causeway breaking through the dense forest surrounding like a knife through butter. But slowly as she got further from the great tree city's heart, the path narrowed into one that was barely visible at times. Overgrown with grass and shrubs she'd discovered that the path was quite hard to detect.

Even so, she was not completely unfamiliar with the woods and detecting signs of a trail. She would've been fine if that had been the only problem.

Some hours into her journey, she came across a series of fallen trees, evidence of a large battle. They crisscrossed her path tenfold, blurring the trail beyond recognition. She'd followed what she had thought was the other . Now she was certain she'd followed the _wrong_ path. If it had even _been _a path in the first place.

She'd retraced her steps and found that she couldn't find the section of the path covered by the trees.

_'Well fuck me.' _She thought glibly. _'I bet Ruby is going insane with worry. Now I wish I hadn't come. I hope Tir is okay.'_

Silently she crept, inching forward with less sound than a spider. Her fingers gingerly rested on the hilt of her sword, carried on her back. Slower, more silent still, she inched herself forward. A few steps... just one!

The sharp _thunk_ of her blade slicing off the neck of the poor deer who'd happened upon her, and the sound of her blade sinking into the forest floor below sent a flock of birds scattering from the trees above. Aktaya grinned. The sun was rising on her second day away from Joketsuzoku, and she was already hungry. This was supposed to be a _short_ journey. So naturally she hadn't packed all that much food. Luckily, hunting had been a high focus to her early training. Admittedly most hunters used arrows but she had no aptitude for them. Instead she had to rely on pure and utter silence to catch her prey.

Her skills had served her well.

Some hours later, after the deer had been roasted on a self made spit and consumed, the remains left for some lucky traveler, she doused her fire and made her way back to the north where she'd thought she was. Walking had grown old, and jumping from treebranch to treebranch had lost its flavor some time ago as well.

She truly did feel like a character in a story whenever she did things like that. Who else could hop around like a squirrel? Certainly no one she'd once known. The first thing she would upon getting back to Japan? Yeah. Probably jump around joyously on rooftops.

But for now, she was stuck in the middle of a very mountainous terrain, with a vague sense that her home was North. Scouts constantly circled the city of Joketsuzoku but she had not witnessed any for some time. It was more than likely that there were a few watching her from the shadows but they wouldn't help her. Scouts wouldn't help her unless she fell unconscious, and even then they might not.

Currently, her feet led her straight down the side of a steep mountain. The footing was rough but she had been running on mountains for training for some time now. Besides, if she tripped, taking to the trees wasn't at all difficult.

Hours she seemed to walk. Down a mountain. Up another. Down. Up. An endless circle, before suddenly, the endless trees broke away. Aktaya was abruptly faced with a great cliff. A valley far below. An tens... hundreds of small, blue pools, each shimmering even now with the sky overcast and filled with endless clouds.

"Jusenkyo." She murmured. Assuredly. Somehow she'd passed the damn place. Now, on the south side of the valley she could see the path that wound down towards the pools, clear as day. How the heck had she gotten _around_ this great valley?

"This is where her story began." The one-eyed girl mused.

Seeing no visible path, she spotted an outcropping. Probably twenty feet down. She gulped. Old Aktaya, the young school girl within her, told her in no uncertain terms that she'd become a mad, foolish, adrenaline junky. New Aktaya, the person she was now, couldn't help but agree with a maniacal grin.

"Well, there's no way I'm walking around to that path. That could take _hours_." Was her only thought before she jumped.

Falling down endlessly, she landed, and felt the outcropping crumble under her feet, dirt falling into the canyon below. But she had already left it, aiming for a still lower step.

Her ears popped and the rush of air sparked excitement within her. She was going to find out what had happened to Ruby. She was going to _see_ Jusenkyo's curses with her own eyes. With any luck, she would be able to better understand Ruby. Maybe...

About two minutes of this cliff jumping skidding down the sides of an almost vertical wall, a smile on her face, she came to the bottom of the valley, amazed at the sheer number of pools.

Bamboo poles stuck up, some from the waters and some on the many patches of land, and she was wary of them. Unlike most travelers she'd been warned well of the dangers of this place. The pools wouldn't find her in any near proximity.

About a hundred paces away was the first pool. And she had a tester ready.

Setting down her bag, ignoring the writhing and shuffling of the folds of material within, she undid the burlap buttons and withdrew the small snake she'd found several hours ago. The creature had actually remained quite docile for most of the trip. She'd picked it up, and it had been content in her arms. If she didn't know better she almost would've said the thing had smiled to be placed in her bag.

The small creature's head swept from left to right, gathering its bearings.

Then it exploded.

Frantic, almost maddening, the creature slithered in a wild array of tangling coils, frantically squirming to free itself from her grip. It was short at only about two feet, but not at all dangerous. Aktaya had recognized the species immediately, curiously from knowledge gained in school back in Japan, rather than here under the elder's tutelage. The creature wasn't at all native to this area. Not native to _China_ even. But Aktaya had just added its presence up to another of this regions unusual properties.

Now she scrambled to grasp the slithery body before it wriggled away. Her fingers jerked as the reptile bit her with impotent teeth. They had no venom, no fangs even, but the sharp bite still stung, and the snake was suddenly blasting away towards the cliffside, clearly hoping to climb up and out of the valley.

_'But it was so docile before._' Aktaya thought almost sadly. Shrugging, still fingering her smarting hand, she leapt. She landed in front of the surprised snake lightly, grinning down at the creature. "No ya don't."

She grabbed it, and before it could squirm, lobbed it away. The snake flew, arcing through the air for almost ten meters before landing with a splash.

Aktaya did a small victory dance as she stared down the way, expectantly awaiting the appearance of some other creature. What she got was not at all what she'd expected.

A snake slithered out of the water. At first glance Aktaya's shoulders fell. Jusenkyo was a load of bullshit after all. A wives' tale made by... by...

The snake began to wiggle something other than its body. Not a snake... or not _just_ a snake. Two wings now sprouted from the small creature's back. Draconic and batlike, they had a reptilian webbed look. Almost demonic, they spiked out with grey and black bones. A miniature dragon.

The wings flapped. Once... twice... and suddenly the creature lifted off. Taking to the sky, the world's first flying snake disappeared high above Aktaya's vision.

Aktaya could only blink. "Uhm... was that supposed to happen?" She asked the air stupidly. "There's no way in hell there is a spring of drowned flying snake. I refuse to believe it." She hissed, carefully approaching the water.

Without warning, the hair on the back of her neck stiffened. All her training, all her focusing and meditation practices from the weeks since she'd given birth told her of the danger lurking behind her. Danger that the school girl Aktaya would have been oblivious to.

She ducked, mere seconds before a long, menacing greenish-black tendril would have slithered around her stomach. Crouched, she spun, her knees scabbing on the dirt below. She weaved back away from her attacker in a series of backflips and rolls towards the looming pools. Wary of the watery curses behind her, she looked up to view what this strange new enemy was...

...and found herself staring into a creature pulled straight from nightmare.

Standing above her, twelve feet tall, a writhing creature, like the head of a beholder stood perched on a platform of its own million tendrils. Like some twisted parody of a child's sun drawing, the tentacles slithered in the wind.

As she took her stance, her sword sliding into her hands, the creature's monstrous maw quirked up in a grin.

The sky began to rain.

* * *

"Where did she go?" Was Ruby's opening question. She placed her eyes right in the other woman's face and glared. The surprised, green haired woman could only blink in surprise at Ruby's forward action but she quickly calmed herself.

Surprise at the closeness became surprise that Ruby was speaking to her at all. "R-Ruby! Why are you here?" She blurted, then cursed at the stupidity of the comment.

_"Where is she?" _Ruby enunciated slowly, her words mocking yet demanding.

"Who?" Chell asked, trying to understand what was being asked of her. She felt relieved, grateful even, that Ruby was deigning to speak with her. For days now she'd lamented the idiocy of her words but she dared not try to apologize. Ruby had lit her chair on fire. Clearly without even trying. It was... scary. And she felt too guilty, even now under the girl's pressing eyes.

"A few days ago, Aktaya found you, and spoke with you. She's been gone since then and I can't _find her!" _Ruby whined, her voice suddenly trailing to piteous beside the anger. It seemed all the girl could do to hold in rage. Blue worry and steaming red anger swirled together making her skin light an unusual purple.

Chell stuttered, unprepared for Ruby's accosting. Her throat was numbed with guilt but she managed to barely spit out a response as recollection returned to her. "I-I saw her. She... she mentioned the cursed springs I think, but-!"

"_What!"_ Ranma burst. "No... no she wouldn't."

Abruptly their fight returned to Ruby, tearing through the haze of rage at Chell and the weariness of caring for Tir that had dulled her memory of the past two days. Aktaya had been angry about her uneasiness with being intimate in her cursed form. Her female form. Aktaya hadn't understood. There was no _way_ she could understand! How strange it all was? How foreign? How she felt so inescapably _'wrong'_ whenever she touched the other girl? How terrified she was at the life growing inside her? Suckling Tir was downright taboo. The act nauseated her even as it warmed her.

How could she explain such a juxtaposed feeling? Right yet wrong? Indescribable content warring with ineffable discomfort? It simply could not be done. _Unless..._?

"Oh god." She whispered, her skin becoming the harsh black of fear and despair. "She did...!"

"What? Ruby, what is...?"

"I have to go to her!" Ruby exclaimed suddenly, as she turned, looking back over her shoulder. "She's gone to the springs! She's going to be cursed! I can't let that-Uuugh!" She moaned, as her stomach kicked. She wobbled precariously, as she turned, overstepping. Her grip on Tir never failed, but her feet were not so sure, and she slipped on damp pre-winter wood.

Chell caught her before she could even begin to tumble. Bags under her eyes from endless hours at Tir's bedside, mixed with the impending doom of childbirth possibly little more than weeks away... so very near. She probably looked as much a wreck as she felt, and that wasn't even mentioning her emotional state. All of this was still not enough to stop her from glaring at the woman.

"Let go of me!" She barked, righting herself as she shoved the older woman away. "God, I wish I'd left you in the kennels! You sexist... gahh!" Ruby couldn't come up with a proper insult, tiredness leeching her words, along with a good measure of self disgust.

Chell held her calm, though the words stung. Ruby cut her with words like knives, while her own had surely stabbed the red-head in the heart like a steaming poker. Guilt clogging in her throat even further, but she was able to hold back the tears her eyes had been threatening.

"Ruby. I... know you don't want to hear it," The green haired woman stated briskly as she stepped closer to the enraged red-head. "...but I _am_ sorry. Let me go. Go to Grandmother's home and ask for help with Tir. I will go to the Springs of Sorrow and make certain Aktaya is safe. Please Ruby! You look about to fall apart!"

"I survived _Marjoram._" Ruby snapped. "I'll survive this..." She recoiled violently, again stepping away from the green haired woman's outstretched hand.

"But will your unborn babe?" Chell asked somberly. "Ruby. I... for five years I rotted in their prison. They broke me and tamed me, and showed me just how weak amazons could be. Then... then you came along. You stood where everyone else fell. You... you made me _believe_ again!"

The words brought Ruby up short. She stood, poleaxed, with a mixture of curiosity and worry. Her hand, the one not holding Tir, traveled down to her belly and she felt pressure in response. As if her child knew... Foolish sentimentality she was sure, but...?

"Then when I found out you were cursed... I took it wrong. I thought it meant that women truly _were_ destined to be ruled, as the Musk had trained me to think. I was spiteful. I thought you were just a hoax, not a true Amazon. A woman- a person! -to believe in... but you are! I don't care what you were. Only what you _are_! Right now..."

Ruby was unprepared this time for the arms that encircled her and the miraculously still sleeping Tir. Her skin flushed a dazzling array of sparkling colors, all bleeding haphazardly into the draining red of anger that had permeated her. She didn't know what to feel. She was angry at the betrayal Chell had wrought on her, flattered by the flowery words, and still horribly worried for Aktaya.

"I..." Ruby responded dumbly. Dimly she was aware that Chell was guiding her to a plush feather chair.

"I swear to you Ruby. I will bring Aktaya back. But she left two days ago... she's probably already been there and is on her way back even now. Don't worry though. Jusenkyo is safe, and Aktaya could handle any stray Musk she might run into in that direction. No Musk scout could stop her. She is strong, your girl. That she is."

Ruby sat, dazed. What the hell was going on...? Was...?

Her eyes began to fall closed just as she suddenly felt a small twinge in the back of her shoulder. Turning, she glanced, and saw the small point of a sharpened pine needle held between Chell's thumb and index poking her. A small stream of blood trailed down her shoulder.

"You would poison me...?" Ruby asked, her panic suddenly fleeing in a strange influx of calmness. Betrayal sharper than ever punched at her soul, along with a good deal of surprising loneliness, until the slender archer spoke.

"Ruby... I won't let you get yourself or your sons killed. Rest, dear Savior. Aktaya will be back when you wake."

Ruby's eyes fluttered. Flickering open and closed, she met the green-haired woman's eyes as she felt the arm that cradled her begin to lower her down into the softness of a _very_ comfortable chair. Her emotions were dampened by the advance of sleep. Anger burned, but it was only a small kindle compared to her utter horror at the thought of Aktaya being cursed with her own fate. She would _not_ let that happen, and the worry colored her words.

_"Chell... Save her."  
_  
Chell gave a determined nod. "I will. I promise."

Ruby's eyes closed.

* * *

Aktaya screamed. Her leather armor, well hidden under her versatile clothes, had been pierced and deep gashes from the bullet-quick thrusts of tentacles marred the delicate skin beneath. A beast in name and deed, the creature's tendrils had seemed to come alive. Medusa's snakes, each striking with the swiftness of a viper.

Her sword was stained and sizzling with the green blood of the poisonous creature. A deep hiss echoed from its metal shaft that even the pouring rain could not cover. Every swing the great blade grew a bit more bloody, but the inhuman creature did not even seem to slow down.

When this battle had begun, the creature had been content to only seek to grab her, the lighting quick tentacles not aiming to kill. They grasped her, squeezing her and slithered all over her, before she'd even known what to think. Luckily, it had been unprepared for her power.

A burst of ki was all it had taken to gain her freedom, scalding a few of the endless tentacles for a few sparse seconds before it began to grab for her once more. But nothing she did seemed to hurt it. Even her ki blast had only served to anger the monster. She'd been dodging killing blows ever since.

A tentacle jabbed forward, followed by a flurry of four more, extending far beyond what their stubbed appearance should allow. She ducked the first, rolled her body to the left to dodge the second. A roll to the left, and another, served to keep her from the spear-like power the serpents held. Sensing a sweep coming from another of the hundreds of tentacles, intending to trip her during her roll, she placed the bladed end of her sword in front of her. The deadening squeal of fury that echoed through the valley as the tendril sliced itself on her greatsword's edge brought a twisted grin to her lips. The creature hissed and retreated slightly, its body writing a pile of snakes that had just been prodded with a burning poker.

"Sucker." She taunted, using the moment of freedom from the beast's ungodly barrage to stand to her full height. The rain weighed her down but not enough. Rushing, she raised her sword high and held it to the right, preparing for a cross-slash to cleave the creature's sickening six foot grin in two. Her sword gleamed silver and green with the blood of the creature, shining from the rain as it fell.

_"Die!" _She screamed with a rage

The monster... _breathed. _

"Gu..ah...ck!" Her sword swing halted mid-stride as she choked for the second time on the creature's horrid purple breath. She leaped back, abandoning her charge as quickly as she'd begun. Coughing a storm, her eyes stung with the breath. She gagged, dry retching as confusion and mania began to overtake her once more. She turned her eyes up, or at least which direction she thought was up, and opened her mouth to the onslaught of pouring rain, to clear the putrid poison from her eyes and breath.

Too slow. A tentacle's slithery form snapped tight around her, pinning her arms to her side in a taut cord at the elbows. Her sword fumbled, it's massive handle almost slipping from her grasp, but she tightened and held onto the blade. More tentacles were coming. She could see them through the dim haze of purple that the rain was still clearing from her eyes. More than once the creature had tried to _breathe_ like that, but the rain snuffed out the intensity of the purple bog where gnats and maggots were born. Even now she was still wobbling with nausea, and only the tight hold of the tentacle kept her upright.

She felt her feet dragging along the ground as she was pulled closer. She tried to dig them in, but her confusion was so overpowering that she could hardly tell which way to push against. The rain was helping though. Her eyes were clearing. The crushing power of the tendril around her stung and she felt her bones contort under its dense pressure.

The hold of the tentacle tightened, like a fist cracking a walnut and she felt her bones pop. A scream sprung from her mouth, but she was determined. Turning, she met the eyeless gaze of the hideous monster. Her feet made small trenches along the ground as the tentacle reeled her in towards it, a fish lifeless on the line.

_'Didn't I just escape death? What is this beast...?'_ Her thoughts were wild, but her mind was focused.

Concentrating she gathered the lifeforce she had so painstakingly honed in her captivity without even knowing. Holding it in her center, a bulb of red energy, she gathered her power. Nausea left her as the rudiments of a plan began to form on the edges of her mind.

"S-sick freak!" She taunted edgily. Her insides felt as fire and cannons. The power in her echoed, and the creature seemed unaware. "I won't let you have me!"

The blast of ki ruptured her body as it left her. Expanding from her every pore the heat blasted the tentacles once again, and showered the beast and herself in a flash of blinding light. In the blindness, she struggled to move in the moment of shock. Expecting easy freedom, her heart sank when she found the tentacle around her middle had no intention of letting her loose. Scalded and burned, the slimy thing only clung to her more tightly.

"God dammit!" She screamed.

Dropping her sword, she grabbed the tentacle as spots of color began to filter in; she realized dimly that she was still moving towards the gaping maw of the creature. She panicked. Her hands frantically pulled on the tentacle to no avail. Her flare of ki had knocked the other tendrils away but her dim vision could already see their torched forms slithering back through the air towards her.

The creature's great maw seemed to grow wider in anticipation of a sickening twisted meal that was to come.

"N-no!" She screamed, tugging restlessly on the tentacle. "Don't...! I don't!"

She dug her feet into the soil beneath her feet, feeling the slick mud of a permanently moist ground give way to the creature's dragging.

"_Don't eat me!"_ She screamed in utter desperation. She was close now. The putrid breath of the creature stung her eyes. It's heavy stink permeated her mind and a mania took her as she scrambled in vain raking fingernails along the hard flesh of the tentacle to no avail. Her feet left the ground, the tentacle lifting her, even as more of the slithery things encircled her legs, touching her... Lifting her, pulling her down... down into a black abyss from which nothing could ever return.

She reached forward to hold herself from entering the great mouth before her, and her finger's grasped round a tooth bigger than her forearm. Panic numbed the cut that surged through her fingers as the tooth sliced into her palms.

_'Ranma... please save me...!' _She begged, tears of fear trailing her cheeks and mingling with the rain. She shut her eyes and prayed to every deity she knew, and used all the strength her weak arms had to keep herself from entering the creatures mouth. She'd never been so afraid...

* * *

A slithery body of greenish blue slid through the sky. High above, guilt warred with a determined hatred and revenge. The small body zoomed to the left and right, well aware that it probably had one and only one chance. Two fangs dotted its cheekbones, menacing but small. Wings unnatural to the strange form flapped keeping it airborne even during the heavy fall of rain from above.

Esthre had not cared when she had been cursed to the form of a snake. The form it seemed, was immune to the effects of the breath of the Malboro, the great poisonous demon. A curse from the springs was barely enough punishment for the likes of her ilk. Her cowardice...

But she'd been lifted by a stranger while she followed the road, hoping to return to the Amazon city for aide. The stranger, a woman and clearly an Amazon, had placed her inside a satchel and Esthre had been so relieved. She'd been so tired... so very tired, that she'd fallen asleep inside the traveler's satchel and had hardly moved since.

Then... then when she'd been abruptly woken, spilled out onto the grass by the traveler, she'd searched around, gathering her bearings...

...and had found herself back, once more in Jusenkyo! Back with the demon! Back with Borage of the Musk himself, in all his newfound power!

She'd scrambled in terror, horrified at the turn of events, and seeking only to leave this wretched place.

But it had not been meant to be. The traveler had caught her, and thrown her into yet another spring. Daze had only lasted a few moments before she had realized her new form and the wings she had received. A quick flap of limbs that shouldn't exist to test, and then she flew. As natural as slithering had first come to her upon leaving Jusenkyo the first time, she flew. Up! Up! Rejuvenated by the sleep in the traveler's satchel, she left Jusenkyo with haste that no other snake could match. Her wings took her far and high and away!

And as she flew, guilt set in once more.

Guilt... and fear. Not for herself, no, she was safe now. The traveler. The girl Amazon. She had not known what had awaited her. She had not known the dangers of the valley and the Malboro that now inhabited it.

_"Ta'arva... I wish I could have been so brave for you..."_ Esthre thought. She was revived. She was filled with life, and she was an Amazon. A shameless Amazon. A _fiend._ But still an Amazon, and while she had breath she would not leave another to die a fate worse than even hers had been. She had veered back, her snake eyes seeking out and finding the dip in the land that was the springs of sorrow.

The scene she came upon was not one to inspire hope. The Malboro had indeed attacked, but the fact that the girl had not yet been devoured, or raped spoke of tremendous skill. But she was on the edge. Great tentacles pulled and prodded her, and blood trailed down the girl's hands, cuts from her palms holding onto teeth for dear life. The girl was screaming. Bits of useless ki were flaring off of her body in wild arcs that did nothing. Powerful, and uncontrolled ki.

_'I'm going to regret this...'_ Esthre thought as she hovered. _'But I will not run in fear while I can do something...'_

The winged snake dove. Like an arrow streaking from the sky her wings seemed to know exactly how to glide across the air currents. She probably only had one shot, and she had to make it count. The middle tendril pinning the girl's arms... if that one could be shaken the girl might get free...

Like an slithery, slick arrow, she sunk her four fangs into the flesh of the tentacle with a loud _thunk. _A spray of blood erupted in her mouth. The taste was disgusting but bearable in this form, and she grinned at the sight of the tentacle flailing. All of the tentacles flailing, including the one she was lodged within, wildly screaming, though in her snake body she could hear nothing. She could _taste_ the anger and the sweet sweet pain on her tongue. She'd _harmed_ him. And _oh! _Did it feel good...

The traveler fell to the ground with a thump of surprise, and just sat there stupidly for half a moment, trying to find her savior. Then she thought better of it, turning around and dashing back to pick up a _huge_ sword.

Esthre let go of the beast and zipped away through the sky before any of the other tendrils could rub her off or grasp her, and turned her attention to the girl below. Her eyes widened, and had she been human she would almost have laughed. The sword she wielded might as well have been bigger than her! Were Joketsuzoku amazons all so stupid?

Then the girl hefted the thing and leveled it towards the beast, breathing heavily, blood trailing down her palms from the cut's the creature's teeth had inflicted. The hilt of the great sword soaked itself in blood, but didn't even seem to pain her, and the girl acted like the sword was a paper weight. Esthre's respect for the traveler upped by a notch.

_"Again." _She thought, meeting the traveler's gaze, her vision strange and awkward, seeing more through the taste of the wind on her tongue than with her eyes. But it was enough.

The Malboro had recovered, its mouth twisted in a furious snarl. Suddenly, a green glow spread out from the creature, wafting off it like an aura. Yet... _not._

_"Magic..." _Esthre tried to seethe, but only hisses and snarls came from her fanged lips.

Without warning, a great boulder of ice seemed to materialize above the girl's head. Surprise crossed the girl's features for a moment before she dove out of the way. The great shard of ice slammed into the ground below, shattering into a hundred thousand pieces, hurtling in all directions to pelt the girl, and even Esthre with their hailstorm of fury.

Esthre shivered. Fear was tangible within her, and her wings subconsciously took her away, hiding from the battle higher in the sky. But one look at the traveler's scraped face, bloody hands, and determined eyes was enough to inject another small shred of confidence in her again.

The girl stood, facing oncoming tentacles with a bravery that Esthre only dreamed off. The sword flashed, and the creature roared as blood sprayed across the girl's face and tentacles fell severed by the dozens, shriveling and curling like dead spiders in the grass of the valley.

The girl put up a valiant effort but Esthre knew she would be overwhelmed without aid. It had to be done. There was no one else, and if it was in her power to help destroy this creature... she would do all she could.

She flew behind the creature, wary of the fact that it had no visible eyes, and hoping that it had not traced her trail, she saw her moment. The traveler was being pushed back towards the pools. Tentacles seemed to regrow from the creature and fling themselves in an endless kamikaze against the dark haired girl, meeting their doom to the severing slices of a blade that moved too fast for Esthre's snake eyes to follow. But still she would be taken.

Esthre dived, darting through the sea of writhing tendrils that littered the creatures back just as much as its front, she sunk her teeth into the putrid flesh of the back of its head.

The scream of pain the creature let loose would have shaken her to the core if she could have heard it. Only her tongue allowed her to taste the anger and rage of the creature. The tentacles flashed like a rake over leaves trying to dislodge her, but she held firm, noticing with her dim senses that the traveler had bounded up to one of the many poles that littered the valley.

Suddenly, she felt the creature let loose another cry. The beast jerked in her tongue as if hit by a club of some sort, jarring Esthre's fangs loose of their once tight grip on the creature's flesh. She refused to let go. The Malboro bellowed, thrashing even further, but she _could not let go!_ To let go would mean death, mauled endlessly by a sea of green squirming grass the size of bludgeons. But within the burrow of the creatures skin the tentacles could not reach her small form, and she held on for dear life as the putrid blood filled her mouth and nostrils.

The beast shook with tremors, twitching, once... twice, thrice as if it were being punched but Esthre couldn't see. She could only shake and flail, wildly curling her body around the base of one of the creature's many appendages.

Fear blasted her as a small object lodged itself into the green flesh of the beast not centimeters away from her, and she let go in shock, her wings flapping with abandon as she realized what the tremors had been. Arrows! Someone was firing _arrows! Haha!_

Scrambling to freedom, her body slithered across the great beast's own as her wings fought for air to free her from the writhing tentacles above, she felt joy reach her as she escaped with nary a scratch, slipping between the creatures limbs with the goddess's own blessing. Flying away, she turned back with a victorious grin to the creature. Its mouth was twisted in a visage of horror and death. The shafts of arrows littered it's green body, and more were sinking into it even as Esthre watched. The tendrils were still scrambling wildly, but Esthre's eyes sought the traveler.

She found the brown haired Amazon just at the apex of a massive leap, just starting a descent. The girl fell like an eagle, cutting through the air her great sword trailing behind her, preparing a massive swing.

The girl screamed a silent battle cry and Esthre cheered in victory as she watched the slashing steel cut through green flesh in a gory menagerie of blood and rain.

The tentacles were still wriggling when the head fell splattering to the wet ground in a pool of mud.

* * *

"Aktaya!" Chell screamed in joy as she watched the girl's sword cut through the head of the great Malboro. She cheered at the triumph and leaped further down into the valley, her bow still ready with an arrow notched aiming for the maimed corpse. _A Malboro! _By the Goddess who would have fallen into the spring of the Poison Demon...?

The girl jerked, her eyes flashed towards Chell in surprise.

It was almost surreal. The girl had stood her ground against one of the most dangerous creatures the Amazon's had ever faced. Fought and survived, for how long only the goddess knew, against impossible odds...

...and all it took was one small yell.

Chell's warning did no good as the girl slipped backward, falling down into the depths of Jusenkyo's calling waters.

* * *

"Herb." The word was whispered as quietly as possible. Like the tiniest of mouse, Herb could only barely perceive it. Her eyes were blinded, not by darkness but by the damnable light, holding her unaware and terrified.

Her... her maidenhood burned with the onslaught of torture it had received. A pleasurable burn. A humiliating burn. Her breasts felt trampled, as if they'd been the berries crushed underfoot to make jam back in the old Musk gardens. Her heart stung with the shame, and her body could no more rage than Ruby's had. Helpless, the Amazon's had their own ways to hinder Herb's power.

She'd become a doll in the days, weeks, maybe months that she'd been held here. Rarely aloud to move, chained to a stone table as she was, she was beginning to break. Her mind was losing all sense of focus. She'd begged and pleaded but that had only brought more torture. These people did not want submission from her. No. She was a doll for them to inflict their revenge on.

And Ruby didn't care... Ranma. She was just as cold-hearted as the amazons. Had he not saved her? Had he not... _tried...? _

But no relief came. Morsels of some sort of bread were slipped into her mouth to sustain her, usually followed by the shafts of unknown men whom she could not even see, blinded by the damnable lights blinding her eyes. They didn't even bother to let her see anymore. They barely even bothered to talk...

_"Herb!"_ The whisper was insistent.

Herb recognized that voice... Mint? Her old retainer? Back from her old life... a life that seemed so far away. The voice was warm. Comforting in its familiarity. But surely not. She was going mad. Her body had been used up. Her throat was dry as a cepitur leaf, and her ears surely caked in a month of dirt and grime. But... it sounded so-!

"_Oh, Lord Herb..." _This time, it was pitying. Shame filled her. Could this really be Mint, come to rescue her? Or was it some mirage of the elders? Was she doomed to face the sounds of friends that were not actually there now as well?

The light suddenly was lifted off her scorched retina's leaving her blinking in pain at the darkness that set in. Spots freckled her vision and she could barely make out the lines of a person standing before her. But those lines cut a figure that _was_ familiar. A blush crawled up her cheeks. Shame filled her but it was not in her to keep her face straight as palpable relief overwhelmed her.

"Oh gods Mint, it really is you..." Were the words that came unbidden to her dry throat.

"What have they done to you?" Pity. The pity on Lime's tongue was almost palpable and it made Herb cringe. She had some small pride left. Some small pride. And her retainer's seeing her as the coward she was stung almost as much as the torturer's knife.

"They've afforded me the s-same courtesy the Musk afford our captives." Herb answered, and was proud to say she only stuttered a little. "How did you...?"

Lime interrupted the naked girl with a curt dismissal and a sharp clang as the metal shackles holding her to the table were suddenly broken. Then Lime turned to her. Through her blurry, light strewn vision she could almost make out apologetic features on the man's brawny face. "No time, prince Herb. We have to get you out of here. I don't know how long we have before an alarm goes-!"

"Well, well." A voice that made Herb's hairs stand on end crossed her ears the same was a pox might spread. Bumpy and wizened till the throat was raw with the onslaught of countless years, Herb shuddered. "What have we _heere?"_

Herb didn't need to be able to _see_ to know that Lime and Mint were already captured. She didn't have to hear their struggles to know that they were already bound and gagged. They'd come for her. Captive still she was, but her retainer's had risked and sold their very lives away to try to rescue her. It meant more than words.

Even though no hope remained in her for freedom... Save the tiniest glimmer.

_'Ranma... please save us... please.' _

The torture began again.

* * *

The sun rose in Joketsuzoku with a cold air. The rain had finally ceased, and the only green that remained were in the magics of the trees of the city, and the evergreens which never lost their color. All else was bathed in the white of gently falling snow.

Atop one of the many trees that served as lookout towers for the greatest Amazon stronghold, an watchguard, a woman of no more than sixteen years spotted a small party approaching.

One sported a mane of green hair that could be seen even from the miles off that they were, and the watchguard recognized her. Chell, the stalwart. Chell Who Bides the Years. Chell the Survivor. The captured Amazon who had lived for five years in the Musk realm and lived to take up the mantle of Amazon once more. The story filled the young girl with hope. The other traveler though was indistinct. A very plain looking person... a man if she had to guess.

But the oddest thing...

Her eyes widened as she realized the brown haired man was dragging a head the size of a fully grown Lion, trailing green blood behind him as he walked through the falling snow...

**End Chapter**

**Author's Notes: **This chapter wasn't so much difficult. Moreso it was boring. I found myself bored with the narrative, the battles, and the plot almost ninety percent of the time spent writing it. I'm going to bet that its reflected in the quality. But dammit all it had to be done. One small arc closed and one cute little winged snake for the road! Me hopes you likee!

But congratulations kiddies. You've passed the filler. Next chapter your epic fix comes. Prepare o' brethren, for the great hunt and the heart of the depths is upon you. And Lo, you have come once more to the precipice of my epic.

If my writing is good enough the next chapter should chill your bones in a way no story before has. That's right. Even "Ever, We Stand" shall be dwarfed. I hope your anticipation is at its peak.

Fare the well and as always **Leave a review!**

Till Next!  
MB


	15. Till Kingdom Come

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, _many_ characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

**What has gone on before: **It's been a while so I figured I'd give everyone a refresher so you don't have to reread the whole last chapter to remember whats been going on.

* * *

Ranma, now calling herself Ruby, and her cohorts are still recovering from their battle at Kinagoda, the Amazon Farming City. Getting used to life as a parent, Ranma's pregnancy is growing ever more apparent, and her attachment to Tir, Aktaya's newborn son is growing by the day.

Aktaya, burdened by the problems Ranma's curse has been causing her, went to Jusenkyo in an attempt to better understand her friend and lover. But what waited for her in the depths of the valley was more than she bargained for. Fighting and slaying the beast Malboro, she walked away with a curse of her own.

Unknown to them, the Prince of the Musk, Herb, lies captive by amazon torturers, who are not so innocent as they had first appeared. Bound with his two servants Lime and Mint, Herb waits and prays for Ruby's mercy.

Meanwhile to the north, the Musk have regrouped and a siege is nearing as the armies of animal warriors swell forth from their great cities...

Battle comes. Her War is only beginning…

**Her War**

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"

— _Saotome, Ranma_

**Chapter Fourteen  
...Till Kingdom Come**

_My strength returned to me as the days passed. The tortures of the past, once so fresh on my memory, seemed dull and faded, like a dream. My scars healed, and my heart did too. Happiness of a sort enveloped me as I embraced my fugitive life with my two retainers, traveling side by side with them and Her._

_She didn't take so kindly to the freedom. The armies were gone. The wars were things of the past if only we let them go. But She couldn't. A grudge that I couldn't understand grew in Her. All the thirst for revenge, quenched by her times of peace with the Amazons, had been rekindled with a fury that dwarfed any rage she'd held before._

_We tried to convince Her of the folly she wrought but to no avail. We could have left then. We could have escaped into the depths of Asia and never have had to deal with the trappings of war and hate again. We could have left..._

_But She would not follow. Alone She would fight, till death take Her... And somehow, I could not let that happen. Somehow I knew, I had to help Her..._

_And thus Fire, Ruby, The Empress of the Sky... began to build Her army._

* * *

Matio shook himself irritably. He was wandering aimlessly through the fields of the Musk region, staring in awe at kilometer after endless rolling kilometer of fertile ground and the rice paddies. still growing even in spite of the snow.

The plains stretched for eons, and were filled with all sorts of creatures. Wild Ankole with their massive horns were kept in pens that were wide enough that the creature's might never wander the entirety of their enclosure. Their great horns buffeted and swayed as he watched them mill about affront him.

Other pens stretched in other directions holding goats and ducks and an array of edible animals that could feed millions. Honestly the economical implications of such a farmland baffled Matio. For years he, like his colleagues, believed the denizens of these far off wildernesses of China to be filled with mongrels and barely civilized cretins. Government and the affairs of state and military mattered not a wit to these backwards folk.

But who could have known that societies of _vast_ numbers of men and women waged their own private civil wars for the past three thousand years right in the middle of Chinese territory?

It was quite difficult to take it all in. Sometimes he found himself wondering if he'd wandered into some fantasy land. If the wind whose, voices he could hear, had led him to some far off avalon where guns were long forgotten, replaced instead by the magic these people seemed to wield so casually.

And they fucking _did._

Men casually lit themselves with an unearthly glow, each their own personal nightlights whenever they felt it necessary. They threw the lights around, blowing up training dummies in practice yards by the thousands per day, while women waiting for them in their endless farms greeted the older ones whom they'd been given to, upon returning from a day's training or distributing food or a myriad of endless other jobs that they each seemed to do in tandem. One massive, effective society with jobs spread amongst the citizens evenly, a different task each day.

Citizens... meaning _men. _

Matio couldn't help but feel a bit sick by that, at first. The women of this society might as well have been loyal pets, every one of them. Pets that just so happened to speak the same language. Men would turn them over their knees and paddle them like children at the slightest provocation, or if the fancy struck them, tear off their clothes and make love right in the open fields.

By all accounts he _should_ regard the folk as barbaric. But he didn't. He couldn't. They were his own people. People of China, countless uncounted denizens of his own country. Their twisted, backwards ways had built themselves an army that could and _would_ make society tremble.

Plus watching a couple make passionate love in the middle of a field of pumpkins was kind of hot. Even if the poor girl hadn't expected it, she clearly didn't _mind._

He had watched their practices as he was aloud. Watched their men summon their magic shields and block bullets from machine guns stolen clearly for training purposes. Preparing for war.

They had treated him as an honored guest, after his initial meeting with the guard who had knocked the wind out of him. He had been despised for a short while. Apparently, the red-haired girl whom he'd mentioned when first entering this hallowed city was considered something of a demon among this society.

_"We named her Ruby, and she made us chew out our tongues. Our wenches weep for broken husbands and our fathers mourn their dead sons, their limbs sucked dry of lifeblood down her unholy lips..." _

Whatever the hell _that_ meant. Words of a guard in the depths of grief and fear. All it meant for Matio was that _maybe_ the wind was lying through its...

Even as the thought crossed his mind, the wind raged with pleas and images of the redhaired girl. A halo circled above her hair, glowing with a glorious white light, that made the magics of these men seem paltry.

No. The wind was not lying. The red-haired girl needed the horn. And the man who was her twin needed the scepter and crown. Matio would have to try harder... steal the cornet back and escape.

He wished with all his heart that he _could_ escape, but there would be little chance of that. The wind almost snapped at him daily for his inadequacy. Hatred in its images for the chaos that he had surely brought upon the world. But what could he do? The wind had led him here to capture.

In fact the only reason he wasn't rotting in a jail cell, or dead even, was because of the Elan Cornet. The emperor had seen the cornet and _known_ what it was. Hell, Matio didn't even know what the thing was used for. He just knew that it was a weapon, and whoever sounded it would have _power. _The King had been happy to take the thing from Matio's hands with a smile and a completely false gesture of friendship to the man who had received a less than pleasant welcome.

Then the bastard had taken to probing. He'd quickly discerned that Matio had been a military man, and like any good strategist preparing for a war the other side knew nothing of, the man had plucked knowledge out of Matio's head. It had not required torture or interrogation. No. The man had simply sat down and talked with him. Apologized for the treatment of his guards gave Matio a bit of tea and before he knew it, he'd found himself amicably chatting with the Musk leader about military statistics and locations that he had deemed quite unimportant to this backwater lord.

...It was only after that that Matio discovered these men wielded magic, or ki as they called it, and numbered in the_ hundreds of thousands. _That the surprisingly civilized, _Tsingtao,_ intended to destroy his nation. And there was hardly a damn thing that he could do about it.

At that thought the wind, again prompted him with the same directive. Get the Elan Cornet to the red-headed girl. Get it to her. Get it to her at all costs...

"Hello...? Sir?" Came a soft voice. A girl- no a woman -probably in her early thirties, startled him out of his thoughts abruptly. Her voice was light and tempered to obedience as that of a child. To be honest Matio was somewhat shocked the girl had even dared to speak to him, but he supposed he had begun to look rather silly staring at all the greenery. Perhaps he had worried her.

"Yes, my dear?" He returned warmly, a smile lighting his features, even as her servile attitude set worms crawling in the pit of his stomach.

"You've been standing there for a long time. I was... curious. Do you like my garden?" The woman asked politely.

Matio had a moment of struggle where he sought to comprehend her dialect, but the words came to him quickly. He'd grown used to the slurs of these western Chinese folk in the months since he'd left the military and squandered his way up into the distant forests, but the women of this particular land had a shy lilt to their voices. A flirty tone, likely developed to appease their male masters.

"I love this place..." He confided without hesitation, and the words were true in regards to the scenery at least. The sheer beauty of the endless rows of plants was magnificent; further than the eye could see the rows stretched, sculpting the land like wavy fruit borne hair across a bald surface of green and brown. Miles and miles with people combing them for inefficiencies daily. Men using their magics to harvest strawberries and pumpkins and carrots at rates that alarmed his economic mind.

On the next hill over, next mountain really, cattle grazed. Ankole numbered in what must've been millions. Further still were pigs, and goats, and the ducks he'd spotted earlier, but it was the greenery that drew his eyes. Growing even while snow dotted the ground... Maybe this beauty, this precious garden was what China _needed..._

The wind suddenly pecked him in the eye and he shuddered as an image of blood soaking the earth in rivers, and carrion feasting for months afterword on the bodies of the broken and the decayed...

"...I've never seen a sight so beautiful as this." He recovered, trying to keep the wellspring of disgust from slipping into the tint of his voice.

The girl- _woman, _he corrected himself again -blushed taking his words as compliment. The action only further drew his eyes to her neck, and brown collar resting easily there. "This place is my joy. My greatest accomplishment. My husband has hundreds of women to help me trim my fields, and men come from all over the Musk Kingdom to view, and aid my garden. But the heavy snows approach, and even the great King must bow to the heavy snows and the change of the season as we all do. It has been a good harvest. The drizzen months shall be easy."

"I'm glad to hear that. We have nothing like this from where I hail. Nothing-" Abruptly, Matio cut off, noticing a small child shyly hiding behind the woman's leg. A bit dirty, the girl wore a small tunic and britches that didn't seem to fit her. Pitch black hair tied in two unbearably cute pony tails flanked a bubble face that could make even the hardiest heart melt.

Nothing in her demeanor reflected unhappiness or dissatisfaction. Merely embarrassment and shyness. Yet she, too, wore a collar.

"Why, hello little one..." He stated, trying to keep the frown from his face. No. The wind was right. This society was disgusting... He shuddered to think what might've happened to him had he been a woman, upon approaching this foul land. Cursed with a false beauty that leashed children based solely on their chromosomes, he decided at that moment that he would do all in his power to see this land _fall. _And see this precious child free...

"H-hello..." The girl responded, tucking her head even further behind her mother's knee in the way of small children.

Matio smiled. "And what might your name be?"

The girl cocked her head as if looking at some sort of strange abomination, and it took Matio a moment to realize that the woman was doing the same.

"I... I am Illi..." The girl responded quietly.

Matio, uncaring of their strange looks, turned his eyes on the woman. "And you? What is your name?"

The woman hesitated, glancing left and right as if searching for someone who wanted to punish her. Finding no one in the near vicinity though, she turned back to Matio.

"You _are_ strange..." She she stressed with surprise. "Why care you for the name of I? You look like no bleakheart, yet you speak to the wives and children like..."

"Because." He said with finality as his eyes hardened. "Because it is _right. _And one day I'll make sure you understand why."

They remained silent for a long time, staring at the scenery. Illi fidgited uncomfortable in the cold but she did not speak or complain. Matio had seen what happened to female children when they complained...

"I am called Olia." The woman replied finally. "And I do _not_ understand."

Matio gave her a winning grin. "You will..."

_"...Someday."

* * *

_

A horn sounded.

The hush of the Amazon city in its entirety was not a very strange sight for either Ruby or Aktaya any longer. It was still unusual to see so many people and hear so little noise at the same time though.

Again the horn sounded.

"Its happening again..." Aktaya breathed dismally.

Ruby nodded.

"Ranma, we shouldn't stay here. You're in no condition to fight as you are now..." Aktaya told her for what must have been the thousandth time.

Ruby grunted. Aktaya had refused to call her anything but Ranma ever since he'd returned with his newfound Jusenkyo curse. Ruby whinged and glared and flared her aura in arrays that dazzled even the legendary amazons, trying to browbeat the brown haired _man_ into using the name Ruby had fashioned for herself, but Aktaya wouldn't budge. He'd stared Ruby in the eyes and called her "Ranma."

Ruby blew up their house.

In her defense, she was highly emotional and _very_ much pregnant. And Aktaya had never seen Ranma more apologetic than she was after their home erupted in a raging inferno. But still... The girl _blew up _their home. Over a _name!_ More and more, Aktaya wondered if she might've jumped too quickly into a relationship with the red-headed torrent of emotion.

The horn sounded again. It had been bellowing the call to arms all day. The army approaching numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and the amazons were... _excited. _Joketsuzoku was different from Kinagoda. Kinagoda Amazons loved battle as all did. They thrived on the rush of defeating superior foes. But they loved their farming and their land, too. They were the softbacks of the Amazons. Joketsuzoku however, positively _thrilled_ at war. A battle the likes of which had not been seen by Amazon soil in half a millenia... Glory would be found here. New elders would be made, new treasures won, new honors bestowed!

Despite their quiet, Joketsuzoku had never been so alive!

"I'm not leaving." Ruby stubbornly insisted. "This baby is coming in weeks... maybe days. I won't risk being forced to... _give birth..._ in a rice paddy." She almost managed to keep the shudder out of her voice. She'd reached the very precipice of femininity and the fact _still_ nauseated her. Even after all this time...

"Why the hell are you being so stubborn? Don't want your kid born in a field? Hah! Better a field than the middle of a war! Ranma you _fell over_ yesterday. I've _never_ seen you even stumble! If we stay here... if we stay here, we'll just get in the way."

"I don't _care_!" Ruby hissed. Angrily, the girl turned to look down, and kicked the cat that had been preening itself on Ruby's legs for the past few weeks. The cat scrambled away to the nearest wall but remained there watching as Ruby turned back to Aktaya.

Aktaya did not falter. He glared back at the ever more angry red-head with shards of contempt in her eyes. "I'm not staying here, Ruby. I will not keep Tir in the middle of a battleground. Amazon pride or not. This isn't our fight. It isn't our war..."

The horn sounded again.

"How can you say that after what the Musk have done to you? To me?" She snapped. "This is our war! Hell, if not for me there would've even been a war at all. This is _my war! _This is why I was _born!" _

Irritable, stubborn, hateful, and angry were the backbones of Ruby's emotions of late. Her aura, still shining through her skin as always, rarely ever faded from its dismal red until after she closed her eyes.

"What the Musk have _done_ to me," Aktaya spoke, his voice laced with venom. "Is give me a child. One that I would _die_ for _Ranma_. It's nice to know you feel the same way..."

With that, Aktaya turned a walked on, milling his way through the bustling crowds of amazons, holding Tir on his shoulder.

That _stung._

Well now Ruby felt _guilty. _The jerk... even if he was in his male form, he could still twist his words just enough to make her feel like a scab. It wasn't like she didn't care about Tir, and her still nameless son. It wasn't like that...

"I just can't go home like this..." She whispered.

That was the real crux of the matter. Of course her desire for revenge had been slaked but not sated. And she was also grateful for all the aid the amazons had given her, and admittedly the slight bit of hero worship she received every now and then was nice too... but her true reason for not want to leave...

_'Pops would never talk to me again. Ryoga... Mousse... hell even Kuno could beat me as I am now. How the hell could I protect my kid then? And worse... Akane. The girls. What kind of man would I be coming home locked in my cursed form? Baby on my shoulder... probably breastfeeding him by then...'_

No. No, she could not go home. Not now. Not yet. After the blasted manacles were removed, maybe... after she was a man. After she was strong again... after... after the Musk had fallen. Not until she felt she had the right to call herself Ranma once more. Till Ruby was burned from the face of this earth along with the society that had created her...

Not until then.

But even so... Aktaya? Could she lose Aktaya for this passion? This need?

The horn sounded.

"I'm sorry, Aktaya." She called after the other girl, and the words were sincere. She was sorry that Aktaya was so angry about this. Sorry she was putting her children- _both of them -_in danger. "I... please wait."

Aktaya stopped at the edge of the street, deftly sidestepping a line of children. Tir hiccuped.

"I'm listening." The man called. It was strangely, one of the loudest noises in the entire city.

Ruby tensed. Hearing Aktaya speak with a man's voice had an unusual effect on her. On the one hand, she'd been conditioned to hate male voices. Sometimes even hearing one speak was enough to raise her temper. But on the other, this man was Aktaya. There could be no rage _at_ Aktaya for her voice. Not for the curse she'd received. How hypocritical would Ruby be if she distanced herself from Aktaya when the girl had gone to the cursed springs voluntarily in order to better understand _her! _For that action alone, Ruby didn't think she could love him more.

Would any of her fiancee's at home go so far? _Any_ of them? She doubted it.

She rushed through the crowd of silent folk, and they parted for her reverently, as they would for any soon-to-be mother.

"Will you hear me out? I'll... I'll try to tell you why." Ruby pleaded as she caught up to the gender displaced girl. The last time she'd held back her thoughts, her secrets, Aktaya had gone and gotten herself a Jusenkyo curse. Who knows what she would do this time.

...Maybe leave her. Ruby couldn't handle that.

Aktaya cocked an eyebrow, and the action was enough to almost instantly lift Ruby's morose mood. The gesture was surprisingly feminine and looked silly on Aktaya's very male face, and Ruby couldn't help but grin at the man.

"You're gonna' have to cut your hair..." Ruby mused with a laugh. "It's kinda stupid."

Aktaya grinned in tandem with another hiccup from Tir. "You sound more like a girl every day." The phrase was baited but not at all meant to anger. More to tease than anything, and it worked.

"Phaw." Ranma commented, in imitation of Jai Alai and Cologne to a lesser extent.

A moment of lightheartedness passed between them. Both Aktaya and Ruby laughed and reveled in each other's company. Ruby stepped near Aktaya and the man slipped his arm around her shoulder. Ruby was still having trouble getting used to the feelings that overwhelmed her when large arms like Aktaya's surrounded her, but the other girl seemed to take to her male form like a seed takes to soil. The girl acquired the exact same curse and gained almost no understanding of Ruby from it. Aktaya almost reveled in the change, and still couldn't understand why a different body was such a foreign thing to Ruby.

The moment had to pass though, and Aktaya turned to Ruby with equal parts mocking, and listening ear.

"Ranma..." The girl sighed, ignoring the wince Ruby gave. "I don't know why you're so obsessed with revenge. But I... I know I said I'd leave but I can't. Not without you..." Aktaya voiced to the snowy air, breaking the comfortable humor with her somber words. "So lets go somewhere else. Obviously you don't want to go home. So we'll go somewhere else. You can have your kid and then we can come back and aid the amazons. At least you'll be able to _move_ then."

That stung, too. Ruby did not remember a time when she had been so very helpless. Even in the kennels she'd been able to _move. _To pace her cell, and kill the random weakling guards that came to torture her. Frankly, childbirthing was god-damn annoying. Even so, the words moved Ruby. Somehow the idea of leaving but _not_ returning to Japan hadn't even crossed her mind. Yes, she'd sworn her revenge. Even her child took second place next to her honor, but delaying while she was in such a pitiful state would probably make sense.

"I... you're right, Taya." She conceded, the words tasting strange on her tongue. She'd been arguing with the girl far too much lately.

Ever since Akaya had been hailed a hero for killing some great nasty beast at Jusenkyo, Ruby had felt... jealous. She knew the feeling was utterly stupid, but damn her for being able to stop it. Ruby was rarely hailed for her fame any longer. Kinagoda's population had been enveloped by Joketsuzoku and their cheers were for amazons. People of strength. People they could trust to be there for the next battle... not last second hopes like her.

Aktaya had the gall to actually blink in feigned astonishment. "I am?" She asked poignantly. Whether the question was mocking, or honest surprise at Ruby conceding the point, the red-head couldn't tell.

"Yeah... we'll leave. Tonight, we can head southeast towards Xia Lung. Then, after my kid is born we can come back and finish this." Ruby's words were filled with finality, and Aktaya nodded in agreement.

Inwardly though, Aktaya had no intention of returning. Her missing left eye. Her scars. The skills she'd learned, the amazing abilities. The son she had borne by a dead husband she'd been forcibly wed to... These were the gifts she'd been given in return for all her suffering. She would not return, once she had left... She would not risk captivity again.

...not even for Ranma.

"-gone for a while, so make sure to say your goodbyes." Ruby was saying when Aktaya abruptly returned from her brief reverie.

"Oh... uh... yeah." Aktaya replied awkwardly. Then the red-head's words caught up with her. "Yeah, I do need to say a lot of goodbyes. I'm sure Metsu will be sad to see me off. And Tsoga."

Ruby nodded to the Aktaya and gave her a smile. "I'm sorry." She stated solumnly, and the words came as a bit of a shock to one-eyed girl. It was right strange to here the red-head apologize, though she supposed the girl had done so before. "I'll see you at the southwestern path, the Fenwind, in an hour?"

Aktaya nodded.

So her time with the Amazons had come to a close. _'Well. So long war." _Aktaya thought with an almost palpable depression in her expression. Despite all the evil that had been wrought she would miss this. This place. This home she had found.

_'...Sayonara.'

* * *

_

"Gods _stop!" _Came yet another pain filled cry and the sound filled Cologne's ears with mirth. What joy? What delight to find that the one who had destroyed the man she would have called son had already been captured and held inescapably in amazon hands?

"There are no Gods, _Musk_." Her voice was venom. Her eyes acid. Her hand an instrument of heavy vengeance.

The room was dark, lit dimly by vibrant torchlight, as most torture chambers were. It didn't do for a torturer to see the person she was torturing too clearly. That tended to create pangs of sympathy that just didn't do in this sort of business. Cologne had never been much of a torturer. She'd mastered the skill in her youth, though she'd only used it rarely. Her granddaughter's capture had brought forth the rage that Cologne normally held bottled away, and she had tortured. Once long, long ago, when her own son had perished on a Phoenix raid, she had also tortured. The young birdling had died. She'd been much less experienced then...

...And now. Now again, her rage had been kindled.

"P-please! I've done as you ask! I've... told you... told...! Ahhh..." The girl's voice did not assuage Cologne. No, instead the words only made her rage further. But for a moment she relented, removing the burning poker from the girl's bleeding and marred ribcage, letting her regain some small part of her bearings. Just enough for the girl to answer her.

"Tell me that she endured less. I will know if you lie, _Musk. _Tell me if Ranma Saotome endured any less than what you face now!" Her words were granite. Justice was often cold. She knew what had happened to Ranma. What the tortures of Musk prisons had driven the man's unbreakable will to become. And like any mother, of such a child, she would have her vengeance.

The girl below her, once the Crown Prince of the Musk, looked up to her with tearstained eyes. The pink streak in her hair lay in disarray melded with the layers of white, sprawled across the chamber's stone torture table. She was naked, beaten, weak, and destroyed. Yet she looked on with a defiant sort of honesty that impressed Cologne.

"She... endured far worse than I could ever bear..." The words seemed torn from her, as if they hurt the wretched Musk to say more than all of Cologne's tortures. That galled. She would have to step up.

"Well then we'll just have to make this _really_ hurt... won't we? You have more crimes to atone for Herb."

A moment of piteous weeping, Cologne allowed the girl. She huffed a bit, sniffing the air and breathing. Cologne allowed this. The girl's honesty deserved some small reward.

"Meow...!" Came the playful voice of a small cat. Cologne blinked as she turned to the entrance of the torture chamber. The two amazons standing guard stared with an equal amazement as the cat wandered past their legs, idly rubbing itself against them. Deep... dark so as to almost blend in with the black stone of this dismal place. Cologne made out white fangs, unnaturally long for any feline save those thousands of years extinct.

Odd. But she ignored it... as did the two guards. Stray cats wern't all that uncommon. Cologne turned back to the heaving girl and met her eyes, noting that the Musk had finally caught her breath.

"Get on with it then... S-she's abandoned me. No more than I... I deserve, Elder." Herb stated through heavy breaths.

Cologne raised an eyebrow. "You'll have no sympathy from me, _girl_." The word brought out a visible wince in the Jusenkyo cursed victim. "The man who was to be my son, is now bearing a musk child. You'll have no sympathy from _me_!"

"I deserve none." For the first time in hours, the words of the naked girl rang clear. "But my retainers have done no wrong... free them. _Please...?"_

Cologne was silent for a long time. Contemplative. The cat mewled cutely.

"That would be a mercy I am unwilling to give. You will face exactly what you brought upon Ranma. No less. He too, met friends he wished could go free in your... your _kennels_."

_"H-hypocrit."_ The girl stuttered piteously, her eyes burning with surprising passion. She _loved_ those two retainers of hers. It was... touching really. "As if this place is any better than the kennels. How many men are here? A th-thousand? More!"

Cologne strode to the wall and picked up a bucket of freezing water and splashed it all over the naked pink and white haired girl, eliciting a scream of shock.

"If only we had the ladle to lock your cursed form. But I suppose the cat's tongue will have to do."

"HOT!" The girl screamed. "I-It's b-burning!"

"Gag her." Cologne ordered, and two men appeared with various tools. One immediately tied a knotted wet cloth around her head, placing the knot in the girl's screaming mouth, muffling the sounds.

"Now Herb," She murmured. "Lets see about bringing dragon blood into the Amazons shall we? You've been strangely resistant to pregnancy but we'll..."

Something was wrong. The men that had been standing behind her were suddenly devoid of aura. Then, just as suddenly, the Amazon guards were gone too. Cologne watched as Herb's face changed. She watched her face turn from the painful spasm of a woman drenched with what she _felt_ as scalding hot water, to the grin of someone who had regained hope. A slow smile... then a smirk crept into her lips. Still pain was there. But her eyes danced with a victory that they had not held before.

Suddenly Cologne noticed a strange array of lights dancing along the ceiling. Flickering red and black and blue and green like a torch of many colors, lighting the entire room.

She'd felt no one enter. She turned.

The girl Ruby stood there, her eyes blazing with a fury that could burn stars from the sky. All that rage was directed at her.

"R-Ranma!" Cologne exclaimed, surprise and near shock creeping into her voice. She took a step back and braced herself against the stone table Herb was lain atop. And she shivered. The small cat rubbed itself lovingly against the redhead's legs.

"This place..." The red-head stated. Flames seared off her skin visibly leaping into the air in random crackles of light. Blue Lightning tickled across her arms and legs in menacing arcs. Her eight manacles vibrated in tune with her rage, and she stepped forward. _"This... place..." _A growl. A low... menacing growl, snarled through a voice of hatred and contempt.

"What are you doing here, my child?" Cologne asked, trying to hide the edgy tone her voice seemed to have adopted. She was almost certain that Ranma had no clue just how... scary she looked. Like a demon. An enraged fae.

"What is this _place!" _Ranma's tongue seethed and her eyes were like caverns into a soul of hatred and betrayal. The torches of the room lit with her final word, bursting into life without preamble or spark.

A trail of sweat trickled down Cologne's brow, but she was proud that she didn't flinch. "A place that is not meant for soon-to-be-mothers." The old woman replied cryptically, her fingers reaching slowly into her sleeves, preparing herself for battle.

_"Yes." _The red-head scoffed. "I imagine it isn't." Her eyes were burning with a flame that ki could not accommodate. That anger could not be the cause of. No human eyes had ever burned like that. Ruby was becoming something different. Those manacles were changing her. Her skin glowed a thousand colors that lit the room. Cologne was not ashamed to admit to fear.

"R... Ruby..." Herb murmured rapturously.

Ranma's eyes didn't even shift. They bore into Cologne with a hatred that the old woman had never before felt. That made her insides burn. That made her weep for what would have to be done. Sighing, she reached into her small subspace for a bottle of memory erasing shampoo 411.

"All this time... All this time I thought I was fighting for something _good!_ Sure, your people are prejudiced to men but I thought that... _I thought-!" _

"You thought what, _child!" _Cologne barked only now raising her own voice. "You thought the world was innocent and full of butterflies? Well you are wrong. War is upon us, and war does not have a place for morality. Or your foolish martial artist's _code!" _She spat the word with a venom that rivaled Ranma's but her words held no impact.

Ranma sneered. "You're no better than them. This place... This place is big enough to hold thousands! An underground prison... torture chambers! Your men are the same as Musk women!"

"And _whaat?" _Cologne drawled, twisting the cap off her shampoo bottle hidden within her sleeve, using the barest movement of her fingers so as not to betray her intent. "You think you could change that? Change traditions that have been instilled into our societies for three _thousand years? _You are special child. Not so special."

Ranma remained silent for a time, her voice, her anger only growing as she smoldered. She locked eyes with Cologne a final time...

"Goodbye. Old Woman."

With all her three hundred years of experience, with all her hundreds of techniques, and all her years of training Cologne was still unprepared for the swiftness of the Ruby.

Moments later, Cologne of the Amazons lay unconscious on one of the hundreds of underground torture room floors of the Amazon prisons. Beside her, a vial of shampoo emptied onto the stones.

* * *

The house's door burst open, blowing off its hinges somewhere in the midst of Joketsuzoku and Aktaya practically leaped. Now female again, she sighed, releasing the breath she'd been holding and lowering her dagger as she saw Ruby in the doorway. Her tension rose once more though as she got a look at the girl.

Ranma was on fire. Her colors were flaring at uncontrollable rates. She was like a walking tie-dye lightbulb. Billowing tufts of heat seemed to waft off her in a shining mist of steam, as if her sweat were evaporating before it had a chance to cool her. What in gods name had made her so...?

"Were leaving." Ruby stated coldly. "Right now."

"What happened?" Aktaya asked worriedly. She tried to keep her eyes from twinkling at Ruby's words. That tone had a finality to it. They screamed, _'we're not coming back.' _

Abruptly, Aktaya's eyes fell to the girl cradled in Ranma's arms. Ruby strode into the room and two men followed, dressed in casual Joketsuzoku clothes, but Aktaya's eyes were trained fully on the girl in Ranma's arms.

"Who's that?" She asked surprised.

Ranma's answer was simple and short. "A Musk." She replied, her voice donning the first emotions that it had worn since she entered the house. Sadness. Regret. She laid the girl down on the Amazon's version of a sofa and stood.

"R-ranma?" Aktaya asked worriedly as the pregnant woman laid the girl down on the couch. "By the goddess you're crying!"

"I am not! And there _is_ no goddess." The girl exclaimed, her eyes now devoted directly to the girl below her. She was conscious with white and... was that white and pink hair? Ranma sure did cavort with ridiculous people. If half her stories were true then this might just be the next step up. But still...

"Listen Aktaya." Ruby uttered to the younger woman with a deadly serious air. "This place... this place is no better than the Musk. The men? They're slaves. Mousse... all this time and I never knew..."

"Never knew what, Ranma? I don't understand!" Aktaya shouted worriedly. Tir began to squirm and cry in her crib at Aktaya's raised voice, but Ranma stood and walked to the girl before Aktaya had a chance.

Tir miraculously calmed down. The small boy's eyes met with hers and the boy seemed to _see. _Seemed to know.

"We leave now. Before they're onto us. We should be able to escape in the fog of the battle. They don't have time to deal with us. Not with a Musk army barreling down on them. And to hell with them both. I hope they both kill each other." Ruby stated.

Aktaya... had nothing to say.

Escape? What could have happened? Why would they need to escape...? All of these questions went unanswered for the time being as they gathered their things, the young child, Tir, and left the building they'd lived in for three days.

Left the home they'd felt had been theirs for ages...

...for the last time.

* * *

"My king." Ferrase, one of the eagles knelt low, his head bowed to the ground in reverence to the most revered lord of the dragons.

"_What, _eagle?" The High One's response was terse and short, but it spoke volumes of his temperament. Ferrase chose to be quick with his words.

"Ruby. She has left the amazons via the southern path. Your son is with her." Ferrase spoke quickly, trying to be as helpful as possible.

The High One remained silent for a time, and with a moment of unease Ferrase thought he had provoked his King's wrath.

"You're name, boy...?" The king breathed in a slow voice, that tickled the air itself with electricity. Ferrase nearly gulped. What would his father think of him? Being asked his name... From the High One himself? What an _honor!_

"F-Ferrase, My King." The young eagle managed to keep a stutter from his voice... barely.

"Your rank?" The king's voice was even more clipped than it had been before. A trail of sweat trailed down the fledgling eagle's brow, but he held firm.

"Fourth Air. Class E sir." He replied.

The king turned to face him, and met his eyes. Ferasse felt pure awe overwhelm him. His knees nearly buckled, but somehow he managed to remain upright. Those eyes... such powerful eyes...

"Not anymore boy. You're a commander now. Report to Vrothe for your training, back at the tower. Congratulations boy. You just saved _thousands _of musk lives."

Ferrase exalted. Inside he felt joy that had never been matched in all of his years. Even in light of the King's mood he couldn't help the litany of thanks that spewed from his mouth as he gushed and preened. A _commander! _God he'd picked the right day to be a scout!

The king held up his hand clenched in a tight fist, and Ferrase silenced himself immediately. Then he bowed. "My... apologies, my King."

The king's frown turned benevolent. "No worry my son. There was a time when I was not so very different from you. Now go on. You'll not be fighting today. No one will... except me."

"As you command, my King!" Ferrase said, still unable to keep the tinge of excitement from his voice. He turned to go, and flew up and away, aiming directly for home in the Musk Capital.

As he flew, he heard words coming from below...

"Father a son while you're home boy!"

Ferrase was already too far out of distance to reply, but inwardly, he took his king's command to heart. _"I will, High One. I shall take a schaat as mine immediately." _Inside, Ferrase decided to name his son in fondness of their great king.

He glanced back as a sudden rush of power blasted across the sky of this wretched land of Amazons. A pillar of silver light blossomed across the sky forming a geyser of power, shining like a beacon. Shining... warning all Musk commanders to stand down. Halt their advance.

Their king had a plan.

* * *

A small entourage slowly meandered down the south path away from Joketsuzoku in somber melancholy. Ruby had held the unconscious Musk at first but she had relegated the burden of Herb, to the girl's two retainers, Lime and Mint. Her belly, swelled now to bursting, kicked near constantly with her child's eagerness.

With each kick of her unborn son Ruby's mood lightened; with each step from Joketsuzoku and their pointless war, her feelings eased. No one seemed to be following. Cologne was either uncaring enough of her that she had not sent any followers, or she had yet to awaken.

Ruby desperately hoped it was the latter.

They had spoken to no one. They had said nothing. Lime and Mint had been stripped of anything that made them look like musk long ago. The only evidence that they weren't normal Amazon men was the unnatural number of scars they both wore. Of course, their scars paled in comparison to Ruby's and Herb's, so they went unremarked. The quartet had gathered their things and simply left, and none remarked on the unconscious woman the men had carried.. All that remained of the great, ever-green trees of Joketsuzoku's thousands of huts and tree houses was the sound of the horn and thoughts of a home that had betrayed them.

Aktaya had been most affected by the knowledge she had gained. Her attitude reeked of cold fury to match and exceed Ruby's now. The feeling of betrayal was strong but that too was fading. They were leaving all this backwater blood feuding behind them.

Ruby had thought about a rescue attempt for the Musk imprisoned below ground, but she had been unable to force herself. The Amazons may be just as evil as the Musk had been but they had not tortured _her. _She could not forgive that. Not so easily...

Aktaya approached Ruby solemnly, and tapped her on the back to get her attention. The girl's face no longer wore quite the smolder it had before, and the girl clearly wished to ease her own conscience. Or at least forget about the society she'd been so much a part of.

"Have you thought of a name for him?" Aktaya asked, her tone weary. The burden of Tir was probably growing on her, but Ruby had no desire to take the boy from her. Not when he was sleeping so soundly. Not when her belly felt like an iron weight was lodged in it.

"Yes." Ruby replied. She paused a moment, and Aktaya waited expectantly. "His name will be Sapporo."

Aktaya's face scrunched up. "Why that? Kinda distasteful."

Ruby gave her gender-cursed friend a smile. "I want to give the poor kid hell. Nothing but a humorous life for my boy." She replied. Continuing in a more serious tone, her voice fell along with her eyes, trailing down to her stomach. "I don't want it to be anything like mine. He's staying in one place. He's not going to have any fiancees, he isn't gonna turn into a girl, and he sure as _hell_ won't be fighting in any wars."

Aktaya shot the red-head a thumbs up and winked. "Good for him."

"Ahh... Ruby." Came a word, hoarse and discordant with their happier tones. "I knew you'd come."

Ruby turned around immediately, and wobbled a bit with the quick swing of her body. Luckily she managed to catch herself before falling, years of martial artist training keeping her steady when nothing else could. She approached Herb silently, still held in the hulking Musk's arms.

"Herb! You're awake!" The shorter fighter, Mint, exclaimed with glee.

Herb gave a nod to his subject. "I... am at that." The girl turned her attention back to Ruby, her pink and white hair streaming down in a glorious shine, despite the overcast sky.

"Ruby..."

Their eyes met. A thousand-thousand words passed through that gaze. Herb's eyes held a well of apologies. Ruby's... _Ranma's..._ doubt. Betrayal stung, and her shoulders felt fuzzy. Rage didn't build though. Staring into the eyes of her torturer... and her savior, she didn't know what to feel.

"I still don't forgive you." Ruby uttered. "...I still... don't forgive you."

Herb looked so weak, but already she had seemingly regained the color the amazon prisons had stolen from her. The Amazon's toxins and serums served to hold back ki in the same way that the manacles did for her. Even so, it seemed her strength was returning by the minute.

The sparse covering of skeleton-like trees gave them all an edge of nervousness and trudging through the snow only double that precariousness. The path, only discernible by the long stretch of treeless snow-covered ground stretched on to the south and east, returning them to civilization.

"Why wouldn't you forgive him?" Came sharp, male voice.

Ruby heart skipped a beat. Fear welled inside and the lights beneath her skin began to flare a blaze of black terror, green depression, and red anger.

"Has he not saved your life as much as you have his?" The voice echoed throughout the broken woods. A familiar voice... A dreadful voice.

Ruby turned in horror and found herself face to face with the Musk King leaning casually against a tree, munching on an apple.

Aktaya had her weapon drawn in a moment, baby held in her other arm. Lime passed Herb to Mint and stood in a fighting stance reflective of his heavily offensive style while the speedier Musk readied his legs for the swiftest escape he'd ever made.

Ruby... just stood and stared. Her skin, glowing as always, transformed into a dismal green.

"Why wouldn't you forgive him?" The man repeated, his flowing silver hair dancing menacingly in the dying sunlight of the afternoon.

Ruby's eyes dulled as she stared at him. Panic threatened but depression and despair were far stronger. What chances did she have? None. Lime and Mint were weak from days, maybe weeks of torture. Herb worse still, if the girl even dared to fight her father. Aktaya was well rested but worthless holding a baby.

And Ruby?

The boy growing inside her, whose body swelled her stomach near to bursting, kicked her as if to point out her own uselessness.

They were all to be Musk slaves once again.

"I can't forgive what he's made of me. Perhaps Borage is the one who gave me this child. Who made me more woman than man... but without Herb, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be powerless, locked in a form I still hate. Aktaya wouldn't be here... How can I forgive what he has done to her?" She asked with a tone of hopelessness.

The man nodded. "I suppose that is so." He took a bite of the apple. "Regardless, you have my gratitude for returning my son to me."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Enough gratitude to let us go free? Fight your war. I'll have no part in it anymore."

A grin reached the man's eyes, his lips curved in the slightest show of a smirk. "You would return to society as you are now? Glowing like the northern sky in winter? You would be shunned. Reviled."

Ruby scoffed. "Revilement has taken on a whole new meaning for me, Tsingtao. The worst that society could do to me is direct a frown. What is a frown when held next to your vile son's machinations?"

"Father." A voice suddenly interrupted, and Ruby turned to see the girl Herb, standing proudly as if she hadn't endured months of torture. She wobbled only slightly. Mint's eyes regarded her with worry and fear, his arms ready to catch her at the slightest hint of wavering.

Still she stood and met her father's eyes.

"Herb." Tsingtao stated his voice suddenly the cold harsh tone Ruby might've expected to find in such a ruler. "Have you learned? Have you come to understand the cruelty of the Amazons?"

"I have." Herb replied in kind, and Ruby felt more than saw Aktaya shift her stance slightly to face Herb as well as the Musk King. "I find them to be no more cruel than you."

This time Tsingtao scoffed, his anger finally flaring. "Then they have gone soft in the past four hundred years."

"Why are you playing with us Tsingtao?" Ruby asked. She knew she couldn't risk battle. Hell she'd fallen over while just walking yesterday. How could she hope to...? "Aktaya, put the sword down. You can't risk Tir."

"Because dear Ruby I find myself willing to give you a choice. You can side with me-!"

"Not in a million-!"

"_Hear me!" _The voice boomed, and echoed across the land, shocking Ruby. She would never admit to fear. But she shivered, feeling the power behind that voice. Her manacles buzzed and hummed together, all her power feeling as a mere mite compared to his own. The man's next words were calm, and he said them with a bow that surprisingly didn't mock her. "...most honored of women."

"Honored women? Pah!" Ruby spat, her eyes morphing into a glare, more at her own terror than at him.

"Join me. And I will remove your manacles. You will have the power you once had. Without the bars on your power you will be the strongest person in all the Musk lands save for me. And you shall rule beside me."

Ruby scoffed. What did he think she was? Some power-monger? She would never be some fucking emperor. Especially not of some jacked up nation this bastard had built. "And put your collar back on? Let me guess, be your wife? The strongest slave is still a slave, goddamnit!"

Tsingtao approached. She didn't step back. She didn't. Just a tactical retreat. That was all.

"Not a wife. Join me. And _I _will lift your lock." He baited. "Not only that... I will purge Jusenkyo's waters from your body."

Ruby's world jolted. A cure...? A _true_ cure? She wished that her heart hadn't skipped at the offer, but it did. She thrilled. A man again. A true man... No changing with water. No more pregnancy... No... no rape. Her eyes glanced to Aktaya, and just behind her pretty form she saw the transparent image of her male form. A form that terrified her more than she would ever admit. A form she loved and loathed. She would never have to deal with that form again...

Ruby stepped back, blinking back tears as she realized just how much she truly wanted to accept his offer.

"You will be as you once were." Continued the overlord of the Musk nation. "You will never wear that soft body again. My right hand. The strongest will, and the strongest heart of any I've ever met in all my long years. Instead of that delicate skin, unfitting of such a warrior, I would dress you in the Musk armor!"

Aktaya saw the wonder, the exhilaration in Ruby's eyes. She saw... and she feared. "R-Ruby you can't...!"

No. She couldn't... She spared the sharpest glance to Aktaya and the King picked up on it instantly.

"The girl Aktaya," Tsingtao continued, heedless of the girl herself. "Will be yours to do with as you wish, along with any captured Amazons. As my second, none shall be barred to you. None. You may raise your children in peace, in the homes of the Musk. Women you deem worthy shall be unharmed."

Aktaya blinked. Surprise ran through her at the offer. That and surprise that the King had apparently remembered her name. She thought the problem over. She would have to wear the collar again. But she would be Ranma's...

But then the Amazons would fall... thousands more would be tortured. Thousands of women demoralized and broken, just as she had nearly been... Was that right?

No. It was easy. When it came down to it there were the classic two options. What was easy... and what was right. Herb stared on at this new development in silence, as her delight became a sadness. She watched as Ruby's convictions were put to the test...

Aktaya's throat burned with guilt, but were she in Ranma's shoes she would already have accepted. All she wanted... all she wanted was to be able to raise her child... _children_ without the looming threat of war. Maybe return to see her parents someday? She was under no illusions. Join or fight. Join... or _die. _

She did not want to die. And she didn't want to be a slave. But if that was what it took to raise her children... she would damn every one of the hypocritical Amazons to the same collar she wore.

"F-father!" Herb exclaimed, unable to hide her delight. Ruby, saved from the tortures of what had become her. Joining the Musk, as a brother? It was a dream come true for her. Her guilt could finally be assuaged...!

Tsingtao frowned at his son... _no,_ _Daughter's _reaction. In that moment he decided her fate as well. Herb had become far too soft. It was time to cut his losses.

"My... _daughter," _Ruby watched the King spit the word out of his mouth in distaste. "Is in love with you."

Ruby's eyes widened and she turned to stare at Herb, whose jaw hung limply as she stared on at her Father. Herb's face filled with crimson blood, as her eyes slowly trailed to meet Ruby's. "Th-that's not...!"

"Her curse shall be locked. She, too, shall be yours, in payment for all the wrongs the Musk have done so _proud_ a warrior."

"You...! You can't do that!" Herb screamed, her voice erupting in hysterics. "Father you can't-!"

_"Silence! Daughter_! It is not women's place to interrupt the talk of men." Tsingtao barked, his eyes snapping to Herb for the barest ounce of a second.

Herb's mouth shut with an audible click, and she looked down in horror, her face flushed and tears welling in her eyes. Ruby could almost see why the man put her down so. What better way to make a man of him? It had worked for _her _hadn't it?

So here it was. Everything Ruby had ever dreamed of. Her manhood restored. Her power... her _ki_ returned. Aktaya safe and protected. An allegiance with a kingdom of warriors that would feed her love of Martial Arts till the end of her days. A place to raise her children in safety. Simultaneous revenge against Herb for his part in beginning this whole ordeal in the first place and the Amazons for their betrayal.

Everything she'd ever wanted.

All she had to do was turn her back on everything that was _right._

Shadows hovered over her eyes as she made one small whisper. _"...Hell no." _Silent, staring down into her folded arms, her eyes closed, Ruby let a single tear fall down her left cheek. Damning her own honor she raised her eyes.

"Everything you have, I will take." She said slowly, recalling her words from what seemed so long ago.

Tsingtao's eyes narrowed.

"Everything you love, I will destroy."

His lips turned into a frown. He took another bite of the apple.

"And then I will kill you." She told him, her eyes lit with fury that none but the Ruby could hope to match. _"This I vow." _

Tsingtao tossed the apple core away and sighed. He placed a hand into the pocket on his elegant golden and white robes, while his other idly fiddled with the golden crown on his head.

"A warrior to the very bitterest of ends... Conviction to break the sky in twain. I'm sorry to hear you turn my offer down, Ranma." He sighed once more before a sudden change of tone overtook him. "But in truth...!" He jovially beamed, lifting a single finger with that terrifying grin that stretched from ear to ear.

Ruby's code of honor was absolute. She fought for what was right. Nothing less would suffice. Now, or ever.

"...I was kind of hoping you would."

Ruby's fists clenched. She didn't bother with a fighting stance. She would not fight. Not on either side in this war. Not for anything she could dream of. Because Ranma Saotome- Yes. Perhaps she was _still_ Ranma Saotome at that- did not bend on her morality.

When she'd been in the kennels, killing the tortures had been _right._ Killing all of the Musk had been. It still was. When she'd discovered the amazons were no better than their male counterparts, killing them _too_ had become right. Since she had no power to destroy either, she had chosen to leave; let them kill themselves. As they had done for thousands of years, so they hopefully would do for a thousand more, and leave the rest of the world out of their hideous power struggle.

Her convictions held.

Tsingtao blurred by her, and she remained immobile. He wrapped his hand around her throat. She refused to move. She met his eyes as they materialized before her staring into them with hatred. Fighting was pointless. And if he decided to take her back to the Musk? Living, too, was pointless.

Suddenly a fist impacted upon the Musk King's face, bashing him away and dislodging the man's grasp from her throat.

Herb stood before her, the short girl's fist raised against her father.

Shock overtook Tsingtao's face. He caressed the cheek his daughter had blindsided and his jaw hung open in disbelief.

"You... you betray me? My own flesh and blood?" Tsingtao hissed. For a moment he seemed torn. Only a moment.

Herb suddenly blasted away, slamming into a tree nearby, and falling to the ground in a heap. No visible effort had been shown on Tsingtao's part. An invisible bat of Ki. "Fine! You wish to join the Amazon scum, so be it! Weakling of a daughter, I cast you out! You are no Musk! You are no son of mine!"

Ruby's eyes followed the Musk prince in concern but they snapped back to Tsingtao as his hand again snaked around her neck.

"Ranma, no...!" Came Aktaya's shout as she fumbled to lock her eyes on the Musk King once again. "Ranma please! Think of Tir! If... if this is our only shot, you have to take it!"

Ruby's eyes didn't leave the King's. She gave no heed to Aktaya's pleas either. Was that selfish? Did it matter? She couldn't do it. No matter how much she wanted to see Tir safe... she couldn't accept that offer.

"Do it then." She hissed. "You don't want me in your way. Finish me. At least let me die free of both your foul worlds!"

The king grinned. "Oh my dear. I'm not going to _kill you._.."

His hand left her neck and slid... down her shoulder? She watched the oranges and greens of defiance and depression dance beneath her skin. The black of despair lighting his hand with an unnatural glow as it slid down her bare arm. What was he?

Ruby's eyes widened in shock as he tapped her first manacle on her left hand. The manacle fell off hitting the dirt path below with a hollow thud.

"What...? What're you?"

Suddenly, she felt a kick from her belly. Another. Another...

She looked down to her chest, and noticed that one light, different from all the rest, sparkled beneath her shirt. A shining diamond of white, cutting through the myriad of other colors bursting forth from her heart. A sparkle. A flare!

_A nova._

And it hit her. Like the sound of a thousand banshee's screaming in terror, the screech dwarfed any she'd ever heard. Like a train rushing through her she sank to her knees at the sudden, unimaginable rush of power that blazed through her skin. Whiteness stole her vision entirely and she shut her eyes as the sting of her own aura burned her retinas.

Her baby kicked. Kicked and kicked as if it, too, were screaming.

"Wh-what are you doing!" She bellowed as she fell to the ground, backing away as her vision slowly began to clear.

Ki. Mountains of ki. _Oceans!_ It broiled like water in a kettle, bubbling over the resistance of the other seven manacles without seeming to meet even the slightest resistance. It had been so long since she'd felt more than an ounce of the life energy that sustained her that she was blown away by the sudden rush of it all. Her eyes rolled as complete and utter ecstasy filled her. The feel of a warm room after braving an icestorm magnified a thousandfold.

O, Ruby screamed! But not in pain. In joy! Rapture!

_"By... god! It burns!_" She bellowed. Completely unaware of the tempest she lay in the center of.

Aktaya blinked back tears. Her back burned and felt raw but Tir remained safe in her arms. The blast of power from Ruby had been strong enough to send them all flying and she'd skidded hard along the path. Her back bled and stung but she barely noticed. Tir was safe... he was crying loudly in her arms. Safe. Wondrously safe.

"It'll... be alright!" She yelled to the baby, cuddling it close. The child didn't even hear her over the influx of wind and static electricity that seemed to be charging every particle of the air. Streams of visible air buffeted everyone turning her brown hair into a roiling blaze of strands. Aktaya remembered well the moment her manacle had come off. It had been explosive. Unimaginable. An orgy of fire, power, and ecstasy.

Ruby lost one manacle. By god, how must she feel?

Her eyes trailed to the redhead lying on the ground, spasming in the center of the vortex. She saw the girl's glassy eyes and mouth, screaming pleas into the sky, her hands feebly grasping the dirt beneath her.

Suddenly, the wind around her died, and Aktaya looked up to see Herb, standing tall her Ki creating transparent blue barrier between them and the flux of burning light and air.

_"I'm watching you ascend!"_ Came Tsingtao's booming voice, echoing even over the electric pulses of ki that periodically flared from Ruby's heart.

Ruby felt her self burning away. Her skin seemed to melt under the blaze of fire and ice, bursting into ashes just as the man Tsingtao had killed so long ago had. Just as the men she had killed when she'd been a medic at Kinagoda. Her skin burned away into ash.

But even as it did, such a massive well of ki... healed her. Replenished her. Her skin grew back. Tears freely fell down her cheeks and her fingers dug into the dirt, clasping at it as if it were her only lifeline.

None of it mattered. The pain was unbearable but Ruby bore it. It didn't even matter. No. What mattered... lay within her.

_"The baby!" _She screamed raggedly as her stomach bulged from within. Her son was screaming. Her son was wriggling. Her son was being burned from within her... She turned her eyes back, and saw Aktaya standing safely behind Herb's shield. Her hand moved slowly... reaching for the brown-haired girl who now stared at her in horror. _"H.. help... me! P-please..." _

Without warning Tsingtao again stood before her, triumphantly standing over her fallen form, staring down at her with eyes that drank in the flowing ki like a vulture knowing his next meal was ready...

"Do you see now, Ranma!" He bellowed to her over the rushing wind. Lighting arced off her body and lanced towards him echoing her ferocity, but he batted the accidental attack away as if it were nothing more than a fly.

Sweat would have trailed Ruby's brow, had her brow existed long enough for it to form. Her skin melted and regrew like a phoenix in perpetual rebirth.

Ruby had forgotten how to stop. So long ago it seemed she had forgotten. Her ki blasted out in waves of immensity that could tear the world in two.

_"I have to stop it..." _Ruby thought. _"I can't push anymore... I can't!" _

Her will long since turned to iron, she found a way. She... _pulled._

The flare of light erupting from her heart abated, fizzling down to a small sparkler flickering upon her chest. The hurricane force gales died... and all that was left was that shining diamond of light bursting from her chest, and her eyes squinted in effort as she pushed with everything she had to hold back her power.

CLINK.

Ruby only had the barest moment to hear the sound of one of the manacles on her right arm falling off her before everything quadrupled.

"AGHHHHH!" Ranma's scream pierced Aktaya's soul as Herb broke into a sweat, his barrier nearly capsizing at the second sudden onslaught of power.

Ruby stared up at Tsingtao, unable to speak through the rapture her body felt, and the horror of feeling her baby being burned away inside her.

"P...put... ba.. ach!" Ruby winced, and Aktaya watched at trees fell, uprooting around her, plummeting at the push of Ruby's single moment of lapse. Each and every toppled and plummeted bearing their roots to the world in a radial arc around the tiny redhead. Smaller ones left the ground completely to fling away like javelins. What little grass that remained flattened against the ground thinner than the meanest paper. The earth beneath the Ruby began to sizzle and churn with the effects of her Ki. Her whole body now glowed white, dwarfing any light the sun ever gave.

A goddess in human form. Light, burning in the dismal shape of a human being.

Tsingtao stood, seemingly unaffected by the tempest of ki, a mad grin on his face. As he stood over the white figure in triumph.

Without warning a flash of red blasted from the north, slamming into the Musk King like a Haymaker. The king doubled over, but his feet didn't move an inch.

He rose, ignoring the struggling girl on the ground to turn towards the north. He rubbed his lip where the beam of light had impacted and Aktaya spotted a hint of red blood on his fingers. Then she turned to the source and witnessed Cologne of the Amazons pogoing down the side of the mountain at speeds she would've thought impossible. An array of red shining lights seemed to appear before the old woman. Arrows of light, they sped out ahead of her and impacted with explosions upon another forcefield surrounding Tsingtao, obscuring the king from view.

But nothing could obscure the blinding light of Ranma lying below.

In the midst of an explosion that Ruby neither felt nor cared about, the girl's mind devoted to her task. "_Gotta hold it! Gotta keep him alive! C-come on boy! Stay with me!" _She thought dismally feeling the pain of the child within her gave her a motivation that nothing else had ever matched. She spent every iota of power and strength she had on halting the font of power now within her.

"Please! Don't do this! You're killing him! Y-you're killing him!" The redhead screamed, staring up at the Musk lord.

The king only smiled, and knelt down. Ruby watched him as his hand moved towards her. She struggled but to no avail. Every effort put into holding back the tidal wave of power left her not the slightest bit of energy for movement. "_P-please!" _Her eyes bled tears that floated into the sky, buoyed by her power as she followed his finger to her left leg.

_"No!" _

He tapped lightly against one of the manacles on her leg. The world went awash with white again. Ruby felt her baby bellowing, writhing in agony within her. She screamed once more, and grit her teeth. Her eyes burned and she _pulled. _An ant pulling an iceberg, but somehow yet again, she more, the power fizzled, dying down.

The air cleared, and the destruction wrought by Ruby's ki horrified her. Fallen trees burned all around her. Grass, blackened and ashed. Her eyes trailed once more to Akaya and the three Musk, and she found Herb on her knees, just barely managing to keep a flimsy shield in place, protecting her two comrades, Aktaya, and Tir.

Aktaya was screaming something to her, but she couldn't make out what. The girl was crying. And Ruby felt regret... if only she'd accepted... then maybe her child wouldn't be in pain. Gods how _stupid_ had she been? _Why_ couldn't she have seen that _nothing_ was more important than the boy she'd only just named?

Once chance lit her mind. The infinite capability of Ranma Saotome to adapt to any situation found only one solution. She searched further scanning the ground near her, and found her target. The manacle... she had to get them back on!

She spared the briefest moment of effort to move, and the pulse of ki her moment of ease produced pushed even Tsingtao back. She heard a yelp from He

b as the girl's barrier began to flicker but she had no choice. The manacle! If she could just get it back...!

She slammed her arm towards the open confines of the manacle, lying like a half open handcuff on the ground, only to find it suddenly snatched away. Her arm hit the dirt with a thud.

_"God...! So... good!" _The words fell from her unwillingly as she pulled her power again, still straining to hold back the full brunt. Her baby was burning... it shouldn't feel this way! _It shouldn't...!_

_"_Last one Ranma-chan." The Musk King said with a smile on his face. "Four ought to be enough. And thank you... for making my war so much easier."

He stepped aside from her, giving her a view of Cologne, burning with an aura of anger that would've dwarfed any'd she'd ever seen...

...before today.

For one final chilling moment, she met the King's eyes. One last time chance. One plea... "He's... your grandson! Don-ack! Don't... do this! You grandson! Your god...tataa..! Your goddamn grandson! Stopit! _Stopit! Save him!"_ She begged, sobbing in peril.

She watched as he sobered. Red beams from Cologne showered them in explosions and dirt and rubble littered the world, but they had no effect.

He bowed his head to her, finally showing some hint of human emotion. His own regret... "Some things... are more important. Even than blood..."

A final click. Her right leg...

In the moment before the final wave came, just before she knew she would lose all control, he held up the four manacles he'd taken. And disappeared.

One of Cologne's red beams struck her directly.

The world went white, one final time.

* * *

Su Li Din sat atop one of Joketsuzoku's tallest trees. Her demeanor was grim, as was usual these days. But today moreso than most others. Even Kinagoda had not given her so foreboding a feeling as today.

She didn't know why she was terribly worried. Kinagoda's paltry defences were nothing next to the might of Joketsuzoku. In three thousand years no Musk had even made it _into_ the city. Or... so the ancestor's said.

And Joketsuzoku's defensive magics were so strong that she could believe it. Outsiders with malicious intent _died_ upon setting foot on these hallowed grounds. Only the strongest could thwart wards of such power...

The summoning contracts of the Musk were destroyed upon entering the holy ground of Liera. They would gain no advantage from their animal gods here, no matter how many women they sacrificed.

Mazes kept enemies entrenched for hours, and if any one strong enough to resist the deathwards, traps, and other defenses, they _then_ had to deal with the strings of a thousand amazon bows set to guard every centimeter of ground from the outskirts to the very heart of Joketsuzoku!

If _any_ Musk managed to get through all of _that_...? Then, they faced _elders._

Still a nagging feeling plagued her.

Her eyes swept to the north west atop a mountain almost two miles away. Amazon techniques to enhance vision, developed by her ancestor fourteen hundred years before aided the ancient elder in seeing so far.

The mountain was _crawling _with Musk. As was the one to its left... and right...

Hundreds of thousands.

The full brunt of the Musk Armies were here. All were battle ready.

Su Li Din gave a smirk, disregarding the shadow hovering behind her shoulders. "Let them come." She hissed. Joketsuzoku would never fall to rabble such as this. If their numbers were _twice_ as large they could not break impenetrable magics of _this_ city.

She turned in satisfaction, and was suddenly blinded.

Blinking in shock, she focused as quickly as possible, turning her eyes to the south...

...where a dome of pure white light was expanding from the forest with impossible speed, consuming all within its reach.

"...O Goddess... what did we do wrong?" The old woman prayed.

She leaped from the top perch of the Amazon city, down, down into the streets below, and landed with a light tap. Then, she erected the strongest barrier of Ki many Amazons had ever witnessed.

A few more barriers appeared. A few... a precious few. Then, all was consumed in light.

* * *

Matio, the man who listened to the wind, snapped awake. His eyes opened wide in horror.

He did not see the burning candles lighting his Musk guest chamber. He did not see the fearful slave girl at his feet, worriedly fretting over him, her collar bouncing along with her naked breasts.

No. Instead, the wind danced in front of him, singing the tale of a hundred thousand deaths, and the millions more that would follow.

He buried his face in his hands and wept.

* * *

High above, Tsingtao floated watching in satisfaction, listening to the screams of burning Amazons as they were consumed in the fire of Ruby's ascension.

The dome of light stretched almost twelve miles from its point of origin, consuming the Amazon village in a haze of ki that was strong enough to make flesh blood and tissue evaporate into dust.

Not one Musk death. The Amazons were finally destroyed... crushed beyond any hope of recovery, and not one ounce of Musk blood had been spilt.

A smile on his face, the Musk Leader flew towards his encampments. As he returned, he reminisced fondling his own four manacles, companions with him through the long years.

Below him... the dome finally began to fade leaving a wasteland of brown dirt as far as he could see in any direction.

He remembered a wasteland, so similar to this like it was yesterday. He recalled the way he had felt... during his own ascension.

"**About six hundred years ago..."**

**End Chapter**

**Author's Notes: **It's been a while hasn't it? Sufficiently epic? Or have I left something wanting? Ah well.

This has been a joy to write, as always. I do apologize for the long time between updates. Lack of a job has left me nearly destitute and College has left me quite busy. I'm actually procrastinating on a paper due tomorrow to bring this to you. But god dammit its worth it I say!

Whoever gives me the next review gives me my five hundredth! Don't make it "PLZ WRIT MOAR!" I might cry if it is...

More news! In a few months, your Materia-Blade is joining the Airforce! Huzzah! Wish me luck!

As always its a pleasure to write. Again, keep your eyes out on the bookshelves for "Array's Ring!" My own original book, if anyone is interested, is growing, and if I'm diligent you might just find an MB work sitting on your bookshelf someday!

I suppose that is all. I hope you've liked it!

**Leave a Review!**

Till Next!  
MB


	16. The Pieces

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, _many_ characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

**Her War**

While Ruby built her army in the west, I ran. I feared for my son. I feared Ruby herself. Who could know that I would come to be feared...?

— _Sovi, Aktaya_

**Chapter Fifteen  
The Pieces**

_She underwent many changes. I still find it difficult at times to believe. Martial Artist. Prisoner. Pariah. Rallyman. So much power, yet it was strange to finally see her in the position of Warmaster. _

_By this time, I wanted nothing more than to thwart my father in any way I could. Either that, or to escape into the lands that Father had never cared about and live the rest of my days in peace. I admit to a crush on Her by then. But it wasn't _love!_ Not as my father had believed anyway. _

_Imagine my delight when She began attacking the Musk King's heart. I cannot deny my own anger at my father's betrayal that day, but mine didn't hold a candle to Hers._

_Nothing of his was safe. Nothing of his was sacred. And She exploited every weakness he had. _

_For Her revenge. For Her miscarried son, she fought a one-woman war against near half a million Musk. _

_But Her army grew._

* * *

Ranma Saotome hugged his dearest person close, like a treasure he could never give up. Illi giggled fiendishly as the emperor's hands began to tickle the girl's stomach and she laughed uproariously when his attacking fingers found her tiny feet.

He held the girl aloft so she couldn't escape and smiled as she began to plead for him to stop. He relented, but he waggled his fingers in the six-year-old's line of view to make sure she knew she was only free by his mercy.

"Daaddy!" The girl chuckled. "There're people!"

Ranma only smiled. It was rare that he got to spend time with his daughter and he cherished the few moments he could get. Even if they were spent overseeing the construction of buildings and the disbursement of his own army.

War was done. At least for now.

"Well they'll just have to suck it up won't they?" He asked her with a wink. "Come on. I'm done here, and I think Jerros and Neike can handle everything else, right?" He gave the two men a questioning tilt and both of the heads of construction nodded.

"Hail the Emperor!" One of the construction workers shouted from high above, and a short chorus of echos followed.

Ranma grimaced, but gave them a wave and a bow all the same. It wouldn't do to dishearten the people by not responding. A small cheer went up but the novelty of the Ruby Emperor was wearing off among the people. They were tired. They were hungry. They were sick of working for almost no food and some were feeling resentment for the destruction of the gardens the Musk had so painstakingly built.

Food was scarce, but there was enough. Japan had begun sending rice and grain by the carrier-full. Russia, stingy bastards that they were, were not being so kind. Curious as the alliances before the war had been far different. Russia would've helped without thought while Japan would've been edgy. Perhaps having a Japanese leader meant more than Ranma had assumed.

Ah well.

Ranma took hold of his young daughter again and leaped. The girl giggled as they flew through the air, sailing over the construction workers nearly forty feet high, and feeling their amazement as he went. The story would spread. The Emperor leaped a hundred feet over a building. No Five hundred! Just to make his daughter laugh...

Faith was a surprisingly easy thing to spread.

He jumped from building top to building top, ambling his way towards the red-cross center. They had one of the most usable helipads left in Beijing and the emperor had been making use of it. Today, Aktaya was finally arriving back from her trip to Japan.

Ranma was angry with the stories he'd heard from her trip. He'd thought the phoenix had been subdued. To find out that Aktaya had been attacked alone and unsupported...? It sent chills down his spine and lent his eyes a glare of ice that froze onlookers on the spot.

That was the thing about him. People stood around him and tended to simply freeze dead in his presence. It... kind of hurt at times to be reminded so readily of what he'd done to become such an entity.

People saw him and some dropped to their knees in awe. Others wept in fear or joy, but so very few saw him and thought of him as a martial artist who'd once had the same sort of problems as a regular person.

Well... even then he'd been abnormal. But the point still stood.

That was one of the main reasons he'd called his old family back. They'd reacted... pretty much exactly how he'd expected. They were... family. They didn't hate him or fear him or worship him. They simply _knew_ him. Even those who had hated him.

It had felt so good to be challenged to a battle with Ryoga, even though he knew just how sorely he outclassed his old rival. The fact that Ryoga was willing to challenge and even put up a fight all but the best of the Musk would've been hard pressed to match had been a great boon to Ranma's physic. The man would've helped greatly had he been here...

Ranma flew, no longer bothering with landing as it tended to give Illi a bit of motion sickness. But flight brought the girl nothing but joy. She would never be a fighter. That Ranma was certain of. The way the girl hated battle and all its intricacies made the once-pigtailed war-master happy. He didn't want her following in his footsteps and leading a life like his.

No... He didn't want _anyone_ to have a life like his.

Abruptly his thoughts turned to the giggling girl in his arms and he brought her eyes up to him.

"Going down now, little one! Ready?" There was a light in his eyes that had long been missing and at the girl's joyous reply of "Definitely Daddy!" His heart soared even as his body plummeted.

The girl screamed in delight, her black hair whipping with the wind and her yellow shirt and white pants fluttered along with it as they fell. Just before landing he slowed to a stop with a burst of wind and the girl hiccupped at the sudden shift in velocity. The next few meters he eased down onto a helipad where a chopper's blades were only just beginning to swing to a halt.

"Show off..." Ryoga groused from the corner of the building, over the whirl of the helicopter's blades as the engine slowly cut.

Ranma grinned at the lost boy. "If you've got it, flaunt it!" He boasted, the words drudging up reminiscent memories of his youthful pride.

Ryoga gave a low growl but Ranma only laughed it away. Today was too happy an occasion for anger. Well. He hoped it was.

Shampoo's hand fell lightly upon the Lost Boy's arm and he calmed slightly at her touched and turned to her. The purple haired girl's tear-stained cheeks gave any smile cause to fade. Much pain had come to the last Amazon in recent days.

She'd only just discovered the death of her mother, and then was subsequently informed that her entire society had been wiped off the map. Following that, news of her Great Grandmother's demise was icing on the cake.

Ranma was just happy the purple haired girl had never gotten involved in all this. If she had... If she'd returned with Cologne, it was likely she would no longer be alive today. Yet another victim of Ranma's uncontrollable rage that day...

The purple haired girl's dress was a perfect representation of chastity, cut to show no skin. It's pure black color brought the dim out of any situation though, and Ranma couldn't help but dwell on the attack of the two phoenix as he looked towards the chopper.

All of his Nerima Ambassadors were present. About time too. They'd spent nearly a week here in China and in that time many changes had occurred. The Chinese were a diligent people, and already the city of Beijing was becoming livable again, thanks in no small part, to the surprisingly effective efforts of his family.

Ryoga was seen daily down in the villages lifting fallen rubble and clearing out pieces of metal that even the greatest of cranes and bulldozers couldn't budge. Likewise, Shampoo joined him. Ukyo had begun a restaurant charging mere pennies for okonomiyaki and was somehow _still_ turning a profit.

Nabiki.

Nabiki was fucking insane.

The woman had already organized full contracts with Japan in relief and assistance crews, and she was bludgeoning Russia daily with demands for aid. Care packages had begun dropping a mere two days after the ambassadors from Japan had arrived, courtesy of the surprisingly heartfelt middle Tendo. The girl would never admit it openly, but Ranma was nearly certain that the destitute families aimlessly wandering the streets of the city had touched her.

Nabiki had immediately and promptly taken over negotiations with foreign embassies. With full backing from _The Empress of the Sky_, no one impeded her. And those who dared were quickly trampled by the Tendo's logic. Those who _still _had a problem, usually with the Tendo's gender rather than any opposition to her negotiating skills, were quickly faced with the unbending glare of Ranma. They cowered quickly.

Kasumi helped in Ukyo's Okonomiyaki store, and of course, Dr. Tofu stayed with her, making the place into a sort of quazi clinic. Over the past few days Ranma had the oportunity to reaccquaint himself with the eldest tendo daughter. Her dry wit rivalled Nabiki's and she seemed almost nothing like the girl he rememebered. Callous. Hard.

...She'd have borne Musk torture well. That thought came before Ranma could stop it.

Other than Nabiki, only Genma and Nodoka had seemed interested in actually _acting_ as ambassadors. They had been content to lounge within the Tower of Leira ever since they'd arrived, and casually browbeat the old men of the Communist Party whenever it appeared that Ranma was too tired to do so, or was too hung up on other matters, but they were intending to return to Japan soon. Little Ranma was growing up after all and too much change would not be good for the small girl.

Akane and Mousse were... well. Ranma didn't really know what to think of them. Akane. The girl he'd left behind. The past he'd left behind. It was hard not to be happy for her, but at the same time, equally difficult not to be a little bit jealous. Her pregnancy, truth be told, seemed a bit childish after all he'd been through. What was she so worried about? Children were... _wonderful. _There was no greater joy than having one of your own...

...No greater loss than losing one...

It was painful to realize that he would give up his manhood, his revenge, maybe even his life, to give the unborn son he'd murdered a chance to live...

And Akane was worried about Mousse getting _angry _at her for not _telling _him about it? Pah. She came to _him_ for advice on parenting? His advice was as simple as could be. Love the kid. Cherish him. And don't let him die. If you manage those three you had to be better than _the Ruby._

He shook himself lightly, ridding himself of the grim thoughts. Today he had gathered them all. All of his old family that he had finally come clean to. Finally he was going to introduce them to the woman he hoped would one day marry him.

…One of them at least.

The blades of the chopper came to halt and finally the gusts of wind abated so normal speech could be heard.

"Hey you guys." He turned to them, a flush creeping over his cheeks just a bit. He set down Illi and the girl immediately trounced over to Nodoka.

"Hi Grandma! Can I see lil' Ranma?" The girl exclaimed excitedly, the curls in her hair bobbing to and fro.

"Of course dear. I still can't believe she's sleeping in this. Blaring noises and she'll sleep like a baby, but ask her to let you have a rest during the night...?" Nodoka trailed off with a huff kneeling down so the playful little girl could get a better look at the sleeping infant.

"Hehe! She's a cutie. She's got red hair just like my daddy when he's a girl!" The girl exclaimed joyously, uncaring of the strange looks that were directed Ranma's way.

They expected a bit of embarrassment to come from Ranma at that, but they found the emperor smiling a gentle grin. "That she does." He told her with a nod.

"Well, lets get this over with." Ranma said with a note of finality. With that he cocked an eyebrow to the last gathered member of those on the rooftop. "Lao Min?"

"Emperor," The girl said with a nod. Far from the timid girl she once was, she proudly war a patch dignifying her as the Ruby's aide. The girl was a guide, a translator, a messenger, and as far as Ranma was concerned, a goddamn life-send. Ever since she'd translated her words during the Musk Exodus what seemed eons ago, the girl had found ways of helping him. Ways that had proven invaluable. She'd come a long way. And even though the girl assured him she'd never been happier, his eyes still trailed to the friction burn around her wrist, remnant of years wearing a musk ring.

Several dignitaries in suits and a few warriors that had a fierce look about them all sat inside the small craft. Also held within was a rather bland looking couple probably in their mid thirties. Despite the oddity of the pair, the focus of the gathered people on the helipad instantly gravitated to the figure in the middle.

The girl was short and brown haired with a few light freckles on her face. She wore a unique eyepatch that still made Ranma think of a pirate. Even so, she was a beauty. Whatever chubbiness she'd had when she'd first been kidnapped by Lime and Mint some two years before was utterly gone, replaced by lean muscle and a shining air of fitness. The girl openly carried a _huge_ broadsword on her back that didn't seem to hinder her in the slightest bit as she stepped down from the Helicopter and onto the building's stone rooftop.

"Mom. Pops. This is Aktaya Sovi." Ranma introduced her casually, his voice just loud enough to be heard by all over the sound of whirling helicopter blades.

The girl took Ranma's offered hand and stepped down from the helicopter with a demure sort of gait that didn't seem to fit the girl's obvious battle prowess. The blades of the helicopter above slowed allowing for normal speech.

"Hello. Nodoka and Genma I presume?"

They both nodded at the one-eyed girl, rather surprised by her demureness and seeming sense of dignity. The properties didn't really seem to fit well with the girl who seemed to have won Ranma's heart.

"This," She gestured to the woman behind her climbing down out of the helicopter. Her own imposing presence and sharp eyed gaze had drawn their focus so intently that they had failed to notice the other two passengers of the aircraft. "Is my mother, Oku, and my father Soeji Sovi." The girl allowed the two groups of parents to see each other and then politely excused herself with a tug on Ranma's sleeve. "If... you'll excuse me a moment, I need to talk with this one."

A drop of sweat trailed down the back of Ranma's brow as Aktaya's hard eyes found him. Her face was painted in the picture of tranquil feminine beauty.

Then it all collapsed.

"You _idiot!" _The brown-haired girl screamed in fury. "How _dare you _just _leave_ me there! Where is Tir? And what in gods name are you doing here when your daughter is about to be born?"

The crowd of family and friends of Ranma's blinked at the abrupt change in Aktaya's demeanor. Nabiki nodded with a self-satisfied smirk. '_Ranma always goes for the loud ones...'_

"I-I! Er... I was waiting for you!" Ranma answered the last question first, his hands held up in warding gestures. Her waiting glare intensified and the emperor of the City States of New China scrambled to come up with accurate replies to her questions. "Ahm! Tir... Tir is fine! He's aboard the Alarus, waiting for us with Anya taking care of him!

As he spoke his words became more confident. More assured. "And... I left you in Japan because I thought you might like to get away from all the politics here. All the... the broken buildings. See your family. I never thought the phoenix would follow you. I- I'm so sorry, Aktay-"

The woman interrupted the emperor by walking into his bubble, setting her face mere inches from his. Her glare didn't fade, and she was about to reply when a smaller voice spoke up.

"Mama, Daddy was really mad." Illi intoned from her position cowering behind Ranma's knees, safely hidden from Aktaya's irritation. "He was real worried about you. He would've come to get you but I asked him not to go... S-so don't be mad at him!"

Aktaya took in the girl's pleas with a moment of thought. Then she nodded. "Alright, Illi."

She turned her gaze back to Ranma for a moment. Then, threw her arms around the taller man in a massive embrace and kissed him for all she was worth.

Some of the gathered family members were kind enough to turn away and leave them a bit of privacy. Others merely watched with impish grins.

"You were right. I did need some time away... Next time, a bit of warning might be good though, okay?"

"What about Shuuma and Weiss?" Ranma asked bitterly. "They didn't... hurt you did they?"

Aktaya smiled. "No, Ranma. In fact I think I finally have a bit of closure. Killing them... hurt. But I couldn't let them threaten my old friends."

Ranma nodded. That seemed to be all he needed.

"What's this about a daughter m'boy?" Genma blustered from the group as he approached the two. "You're having another child?"

Ranma heistated. "Er... yeah. I ah..."

Genma gave a confused look. Aktaya clearly wasn't pregnant. "But... I thought you and this girl...?"

Aktaya's eyes narrowed at the comment, and directed a thin gaze at Ranma for the reminder. "I'll explain." She told the balding man curtly. "Ranma's a casanova with a few too many women trying to catch him. One of them actually succeeded."

"It's a bit more complicated than _that_, Aktaya! In my defence, you _ran away!" _Ranma barked defensively.

"You blew up a city! What the hell was I supposed to do?"

"A-Aktaya, calm down!" Oku, the girl's mother attempted to pacify her heated daughter, speaking for the first time since her introduction. The woman then turned her gaze to her prospective son-in-law. "Now I think its about time we got the whole story." She prompted. "Despite the apparent fact that you're having a child with another woman, it seems my daughter still finds you worthy of her affection. I'd like to know why."

Ranma scratched his head. "We kinda need to get moving. The plane taking us to Shang Hai is already here and waiting for us. But I'll start and tell you on the way."

"We're going to Shang Hai?" Nabiki piped up from the assembled group, but for once was ignored.

"That would be acceptable." Oku replied to the black-haired emperor.

Ranma smiled. "Well, I guess I'll start where I left off. It was..."

"**...about a year and four months ago."**

* * *

It seemed forever that Aktaya sat, encased in a dome of blue, clutching Tir to her chest and praying that the white light outside would abate. Praying that Herb- Herb! The Musk Prince of all people! -could hold her barrier.

Through it all her eyes hung on the pink and white haired girl. So small. Smaller even than Ruby it seemed.

Then she turned her eyes back to where she'd last seen Ranma. She couldn't see the redhead anymore. Outside the barrier was pure light all around. All she could see for certain was the grass beneath her feet and the other two, lime and mint, who seemed vaguely familiar.

Through the white, she could make out the outline. The dimmest... outline of a figure. Standing, maybe even floating, in the area where Ranma had been, formed into the shape of a human. An area of even _whiter_ white.

And the scream. The scream yelling out over everything. Louder than the sound of the ground being destroyed. Louder than trees bursting into nothingness at the pure overload of synthetic life. The scream of her Ruby in agony, to the harmony of the destruction of all.

She trembled.

Through it all Tir remained silent. Like a man knowing the headsman's axe was only moments away, already resigned to his doom, Tir watched the white. His cute little eyes showed that he saw, did not understand, and was afraid anyway.

Herb tumbled to her knees. One hand out lifted and from it sprang the blue dome protecting them. The dome quivered, and the whiteness pressed in. The girl's breathing came in labored gasps.

"Herb!" One of the two men yelled in fear. "I'll... I'll help!"

He reached up and his own blue energy seeped forth to join with that of the overburdened girl.

'_I have to help too!' _She thought, and she wasted no time turning the thought to action. Her hand lifted and her power surged into the stream coming forth from Herb's outstreched hands.

The barrier bulged this time. Pushing the white back. Herb got up, rising to her feet, glaring out at the white, at the spot where her father had vacated. "How dare he...!" The girl exclaimed over the explosion, the crackling of energy. _"How dare he!" _

The barrier boosted once more and, still trembling, Aktaya felt her confidence become more firm. They were going to live. They just had to last a while longer.

'_Ranma... Please stop this.' _

Forever they remained there. The fourth man soon joined his own power to the mix and there they stood, each united in their drive to live. Every moment seemed an eternity, but a hundred eternities seemed too short a time to discharge so much energy.

In half an hour, Aktaya too, was gasping for breath. Ten minutes after that, one of the men collapsed, and like dropping another twenty on a man holding up a hundred pounds, the weight of the unending light increased.

"_I can't take much more!" _She shouted over the peals and cracks of energy surging against their barrier.

"_I will keep us safe! Do not overextend. I will not let you die!" Herb hissed. "Gather closer!" _

The words came not a moment too soon. As Aktaya moved herself closer to the men and the tree they stood by the barrier surged closer to her and she watched as the ground outside the barrier remained momentarily visible. It cracked and evaporated into dust before her eyes and she almost lost her concentration.

Shivers were crawling down her spine.

_Ruby. Can do this? She can scorch the very _earth_ from existence?_

Sweat trailing down her brow, her lungs screaming with the effort of channeling so much ki, she couldn't help the thought that crossed her mind.

_She's a monster._

The thought seemed to suck the energy out of her. At that moment she collapsed, exhaustion finally overtaking her. Darkness crept into her vision but she refused to let it take her over. She half lay, half fell to the ground, making sure to land on her back to keep the boy safe.

"_I'm sorry!" _She uttered as loudly as she could. The face of her savior remained in her vision. She didn't lose consciousness but neither could she move.

And she watched. The prince of the musk grit her teeth and held as the barrier closed in on them. The other companion never fell. All at once, Aktaya felt a familiar twinge. Had she the energy, her eyes would've widened as she realized these two companions of the Musk Prince... they had been the ones to kidnap her, so very long ago.

'_It all comes full circle.' _She thought, turning her eyes to the girl giving her all to keep them alive.

'_Such a beautiful face...' _The brown haired sword bearer thought. As the whiteness closed in, and she began to fear that Ranma would kill them all, the blaze of limitless white... eased. She couldn't tell how she knew. The light didn't cease in intensity and nothing else became visible through the dense barrier, but it showed in the relief on Herb's face. In the sudden loosening of her tensed shoulders.

Still further it eased. Further. Bits of blue sky began to fade in through the white. And seemingly at once, the dome of ki faded and melted into the sky.

Herb let down her barrier, and her face almost instantly hit the ground with a thud. The bigger of his two male companions fell onto his back, breathing hoarsely.

"We did it... we did it... we did it..." The man breathlessly toned as if unsure he could even believe it.

Aktaya tilted her head and cringed at the effort of even such a miniscule act. She found the sleeping face of Herb and smiled. _'Saved by a prince..."_ She thought. Then she rolled her eyes to where her lover lay. _'...from a monster.' _

Shivers crawled up her spine. Her body shook even so low on energy as she was. The earth had been eaten away and they had sunk down, down into it. All around them the land rose up... for miles it seemed. Beside them, the one tree that had remained within their barrier still stood. But where the barrier had ended, so did the trunk of the tree. A stub, no taller than a man. Everything else was gone.

And yet it was not these things that caused the Aktaya's terror. No.

Just the girl. The red haired girl that lay in the dirt.

She turned away, and closed her eyes.

'_I'm such a bitch...' _She thought. But at that moment she didn't know if she'd ever be able to gaze into Ruby's blue eyes without fear again.

* * *

Lao Min was tired. She tugged at a piece of broken timber, feebly trying to budge it, but there was no luck for it.

Her manacle prevented her from touching even the slightest bit of her ki. She knew that with enough practice and determination she could manage to reach it, but unfortunately she didn't have as much dedication as Chell or the _legendary_ Ruby.

So instead she was forced to resort to mundane efforts of old fashioned sweat and tears.

Lao Min pushed the offending piece of wood and it wiggled. She pulled it back and it loosened a little more. Again and again she repeated the process. It wiggled. But it wouldn't budge.

The girl sighed and sat, rubbing the sweat off her forehead. Her thoughts drifted to her sisters and the battle that was coming as she idled there. Joketsuzoku's war frightened her. It may not be the Amazon way, but Lao Min wanted no part in the bloodshed. At least not while she was shackled like this, but if she really dug deep she would admit that even if she were her old self again, without the manacle blocking her power, she still wouldn't want anything to do with it. Escaping the musk was a double edged blade though, and her weakness made her feel unwelcome in Joketsuzoku.

Several others that had escaped with her during the Musk Exodus had felt similar. None had actually _left _the Amazons but those who had endured the Musk kennels thought twice before engaging them again.

That had led many of them here.

But for Lao Min it had been more than just fear of Musk Collars. Sheer homesickness had been gnawing at her, begging her to return to this place where she'd grown up. But the once proud city of Tsukigezoku didn't assuage her longing for the past.

Her family had died in the Musk attack. Probably mere days after her escape the Musk had attacked the Amazon Battle City and they had crushed it. "The probably caught three amazons for every one that escaped or died fighting." Lao Min thought bitterly. "The were so unprepared. Hell, my sisters might be under the knife right now."

A sobering thought. But Lao Min didn't consider herself brave. "Let Ruby save them. I'll never go back there... Not for anything."

She felt a bit guilty about that but she'd never been a great Amazon. That was why she'd learned Japanese in the first place. She dreamed of a... softer life. The elder's stories, generally told to scorn and shame the easy lifestyles of eastern society had enamored Lao Min. She _dreamed_ of a life without battle. A life where she could spend her days reading, or maybe hunting for one of those 'good men.'

Apparently, in Japan, men weren't so vicious. She'd heard tales. Men and women living in a world where neither truly dominated the other. The thought was...

...a fantasy. But still, did it hurt to dream?

She sighed, fed up with the immobile piece of wood sticking out from a pile of hundreds of similar timbers that had once been her home.

She just had to face facts. Tsukigezoku was a ruin. It was time to go back to Joketsuzoku and try to build her life anew...

...or was it?

Glancing left and right, she found that all of the other amazons she had come here with were busily searching through their destroyed homes or consoling themselves in their own fashion. None were paying any attention to her.

She began to walk, watching her sisters as if they knew of the traitorous thoughts on her mind. They paid her no heed.

"My dreams..." Lao Min thought, timidly. "This... this is my chance!"

Lao Min slipped out of Tsukigezoku with no one the wiser. Her rucksack was full to the brim with food and camping supplies. She could go wherever she wanted! With her eyes set firmly on the land of the Rising Sun, she began her Journey.

Two days later, she turned her eyes to the hidden valleys and craigs that had contained her whole life up till this point. High above it all, she stood near the peak of a mountain that let her see for countless miles.

In the distance, she could almost spot Joketsuzoku, its living trees a beacon of green in an otherwise colorless land of skeletal winterwood and lightly fallen snow. Nearby that great fortress lay the tell tale mountain circle that surrounded sacred Jusenkyo. And far to the north, the Musk Lands lay... foreboding.

A memory that was already fading. She was leaving them behind. She would forget... and move on.

Further still beyond both she could make out the misty visage of Phoenix Mountain, taller even than the peak upon which she stood.

She gave Joketsuzoku a final dim farewell, hoping the Goddess would forgive her...

...then something caught her eye. A small, shining light, far below on the outskirts of the Amazon's greatest city. It shined through the many trees in the way, a tiny light, outshining even the sun.

"What is...?" But she had no time to finish her question.

The light exploded.

A white flash scalded her retinas and she winced, blinking away the sudden blindness that unbelievable light had visited upon her.

When she could see again, shock enveloped her. A dome of pure white ki widening by the second was expanding, growing, consuming all that Lao Min had ever known. Trees burned to ashes and seemed to scream in the seconds it took for the light to devour them. Whole hills seemed to be scoured from existence as that white dome grew ever more. A great monster, greedy and gluttonous, it consumed the land and all that it contained.

Lao Min sunk to her knees, shuddering. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched in horror.

She didn't stare for long. Turning away, she stood back up, guilt plaguing her soul.

"Oh Goddess, Ciera. Thank you for preserving me. And... forgive me." Lao Min ignored the radiant luminescence warming her back and destroying her homeland entirely as she turned, and walked away.

* * *

Esthre flew. She thought about returning to the ground but she dared not. It could happen again at any moment. That unholy explosion. She feared another would wrack the land closer to her. One that she couldn't escape from. She'd only barely survived the first one. Who knew how many more the Musk might attempt?

The amazons had no such weapon. Not that she knew of. And that blast's center was far to close to Joketsuzoku to have been used by the amazons. No. That was a Musk weapon. And it horrified her.

So she flew. High above the devastation below she could barely believe what had become of the land.

A crater. An enormous crater that had destroyed the earth as easily as the trees and the buildings and the very air that had once remained within. Ki of such immensity that it couldn't possibly be human.

Only a demon... or... or a god. For why would the goddess destroy her patrons?

Esthre turned her eyes to the one mountain that still stood. The circle of mountains that protected Jusenkyo. Of course that place would survive. Everything else was ruined.

Far below she could see the remains of Joketsuzoku. Quite a few trees still stood. Little patches of areas had been nearly unaffected where the elders and their Ki protected the small pockets. But the vast majority of the city had been taken by surprise. The amazons had already lost this war, with their fighting force surely decimated beyond repair in one fell swoop.

Esthre had only escaped by flying straight into the air, the advantage of her new snake form. Part snake, part bat or so she thought. She knew that she could fly and that more than once had the ability saved her life already.

She had neglected to return to her human form. Too many memories... too much guilt lie in that form. No. Much safer to stay in this cursed form. It was no more than she deserved. Slithering away from danger like a snake... yes. That fit her well.

She fled to the east. Hopefully away from her guilt and memories. Away. Away where she could drown in the memories of a sister she had loved... and lost.

Far below, near the outskirts of the crater she spotted a group of people. Surprisingly, she recognized the group. Royalty. Allies of the Amazons, come to aid them.

Too late, she knew.

The Seven Lucky Gods had arrived far too late.

* * *

The feeling that brought Ku Lon of the Amazons out of unconsciousness was not a pleasant one. In fact she didn't know if she'd ever felt so much pain in all her life. But none of the pain was debilitating. She could move. She just felt as if she'd been thrown around like a rag doll. He

"What happened?" She thought trying to discern her whereabouts. "I remember...?"

_A mad dash down the Fenwind path. Ranma. Ranma had knocked her unconscious. She'd followed the girl to reason with her. To recapture Herb. The man could not be allowed to escape. _

_She'd caught up to them but the Musk King himself had barred her path. Her teacher, Su Li Din had told her stories about her battle with the Musk King. Fifty years gone. She'd described his power as unimaginable. The woman had only barely survived._

_But all of that didn't matter. Son-in-Law. For Son-in-Law she _had_ to save them! Stop them! Her strongest ki bullets raced ahead of her. One of them smashed into the dread king's back and buffeted him but the others were halted with perilous ease, impacting feebly upon Tsingtao's barriers. _

_Hatred. This was the source of all their years of war. _This_ was the one who would steal her Son-in-Law and her revenge. This man. _This man!

_Then, just as she'd nearly reached him, he turned to her, holding up four silver rings and gave a smile. _

_He leaped high. _

_And... and Ku Lon of the Amazons remembered no more. Just... just a blinding flash of pure white light. Searing away... _

She picked herself up. Dirt and dust fell off her in waves. Had someone tried to bury her?

Blinking, she opened her eyes and began to get her bearings, rubbing the offending dirt off her body.

And her jaw dropped.

The forest was _gone. _The path she'd been walking upon was also obliterated. She lay in the middle of a wasteland. Dirt. Dirt was all she could see in every direction. Dust littered the air as well and ash choked her lungs. Pieces of burnt trees and burnt earth floating in the air. The ground sizzled like recently dried lava.

She looked towards the center. So far away, but just barely visible, she could make out a hint of shining red hair amidst all the dirt. _'All that ki, hidden just beneath her skin. He released it.' _She realized with horror. "And... and...!"

Her eyes darted back to her beloved home. Her city. The place she'd been born and the place she would willingly give her life to defend. It had been well within the range of this monstrous explosion of ki. "My home...! What has become of my precious village?"

And she ran for home. Faster even than when she had been chasing down Ranma, the second strongest of the Joketsuzoku leaders blazed a path of fire though the dirt.

* * *

Ruby awoke.

Not in the way that most people wake. Most gain some hint of consciousness and drift into awakening as they open their eyes. Most have a yawn or two. Most... were not Ruby.

Her eyes _snapped open._ She immediately took in her surroundings and found every fact, every notion, every inkling of her surroundings came to her without even searching for it.

Tir was crying. That was the easiest thing to note. Deeper, the boy was crying due to dry lips. He was thirsty. She could tell by the dirt and dust that he was not strong enough to wipe from his lips. He was warm, though, and well. Aktaya's arms were warm. Ruby had first hand knowledge of that.

Note of Aktaya came as easily as everything else. She huddled close to the three others Ruby had left with. Only one was unconscious. Mint. The Tiger clan warrior of the Musk. He was unconscious due to ki exhaustion. He'd almost used up his whole life energy reserve.

More she saw. They lay within a giant dustbowl. Dry dirt, somehow made lighter by years untouched by the sun made it gleam the color of sand. From her, spirals trailed in the ground. Spirals of energy, and they rippled with pulsing streams of light. Ki flowing out from her still, not in a torrential wave, but in tiny rivers. They flowed under her friends. They flowed out further, far, to the edges of the great crater- crater? -they lay within. Those tendrils of energy, slithering through small symbolic trenches etched in this dirt, caressed and flowed into her companions.

A web. A web, crafting some unknowable pattern visible only from high above, trailed the ground. Each stream connected to another thousand, so many times over that a weaver couldn't make sense of it all in a hundred years.

And all this flowed... from her. Each nuance, each particle of dirt, each and every factor knowable about this endless network was granted to her.

'_So... much power.' _Thought the Ruby dimly. Yet something was wrong...

Mint's empty stock of ki, drew upon the thousands of rivers flowing from her tiny frame, and she felt his reserves begin to replenish. But not just him. Herb. Herb was even more exhausted than the unconscious warrior, but as soon as she noted the fact, she felt Herb's energy begin to refill at an uncanny rate.

Lime was probably the best fit of the five of them. He was tired but he had not expended every drop. He too, began to replenish as her energy seeped through the tired warrior's skin and into his very soul.

Aktaya was already beginning rise. Legs shaky, and trails of energy rivers seemingly attached to her, she sat up. Ruby was aware of her fear. Aware that seeing visible, pulsing lifeforce seeping through her skin, like some sort of silky neon gel should be cause for alarm. But she could not deny that the energy was revitalizing her.

All these things Ruby knew. Yet... something felt wrong.

"She's awake." Lime noted, and Ruby saw the man point a finger towards her. The finger trembled.

Ruby sat up, feeling groggy, yet more refreshed than she could ever remember. A long night's peaceful sleep. The feeling of a freshly defeated enemy. The scent of the Tendo Dojo... So many wonderful feelings crept over her skin that she could hardly bear the weight of such euphoria. The cause had already come to her unconsciously, but she suddenly grasped it with iron clarity.

'_I have ki...!' _

She sat up sharply, and looked around, seeing what her senses had already informed her of. "What happened?" She asked worriedly.

"You... exploded." Herb answered, lamely. She knew the answer was not filling, and wouldn't satisfy her, but it was wall she had.

"I...?" Her eyes searched once more, and suddenly the fact that she was in a _crater_, and not the forest where she had been before registered. "I... did...?"

Abrupt realization came over her and her eyes snapped to the north. "The Amazons!"

Her heart sank... to the north, where Joketsuzoku once was, only patches of the great green trees remained. At a certain height all of the trees simply ceased, sheared off as if by a chainsaw.

"No... no I couldn't have! I... I couldn't!"

Sickening dread replaced the wonder she'd felt just moments before. The ki rivers, previously filled with happy sky blues and yellows and oranges, suddenly shifted en masse to light purples. The lavender hue of disbelief so powerful it became visible emotion.

"J-Joketsuzoku... has fallen." Herb intoned. "And my father wins without even trying..."

"I... he used me." She said, still unable to believe the scene before her.

"He uses everyone. He used me... betrayed me..."

Herb's somber reply didn't really register with Ranma. In fact, for a moment she found herself grinning. It was hard to do much else with so much pleasure running through her body. Ki. Life! After so long denied...

It felt like heaven even now after the initial release. Hell even her stomach felt...

Her stomach...

"No..." She whispered.

A thousand details seemed to fill her mind about her surroundings. The dirt. The crater. The broken life signatures pinging on her seemingly endless radar half a mile to the north. But... she couldn't feel the one thing... the most important thing...

Her hands found her chest. She gulped. Slowly, her fingers trailed down...

No lump.

No bulge.

Nothing...

Her child- _her son -_had been burned away.

Guilt tore through, a tank shell crushing the flimsy defenses of her emotional state with reckless disregaurd. A wail left lips already hoarse from screaming. Her throat was filled with the lumps of guilt that made everything she'd felt before now feel... hollow.

'_I've killed him...' _

The redhead quivered. She had been responsible for the child. His guardian! His mother. And yet she failed. Her pride and her thrice dammed honor, robbed her of the unsung son, she'd come to love without ever knowing him. She'd been the child's protector. Its only defense against the outside... But not only had she failed to keep the baby safe... She was the one who'd killed him.

A low sob escaped lips tight with anxiety. Ruby curled her knees to her chest, curling into a ball. A cold sweat seemed to mingle about her skin, mixing with the chill in the air.

The ground began to rumble, somehow in tune to the girl's soft tears. Herb rolled suddenly the left, her weak frame just strong enough to put her out of range of a pillar of green energy that suddenly burst forth from the ground. Seven others followed in rapid succession, green geysers rising out of the ground to the accompaniment of a spray of rubble and rock. The others jumped,

"Ruby?" Herb was the first to break from her shock. She felt her energy restoring itself at unbelievable rates, and she could feel Ranma's energy seeping into her like water being pushed into a sponge. "Are you... alright?"

No answer, but where words should have been, another pillar burst mere meters away from the group. Herb flinched before turning her eyes back to Ruby. The girl glared at the ex-prince for a moment, and Herb's heart caught at the sight of her tearstreaked face.

Aktaya huddled around her son, doing her level best to _ignore_ Ruby. To ignore the vine-like trails of ki as they covered her and her companions replenishing their energy. More pillars of ki burst around them as the redhead sobbed. Each one caused the brown-haired girl to flinch uncontrollably.

"I didn't mean it..." The the Ruby whispered.

More geysers burst forth, like mini volcanoes spewing forth lava from miles under the earth's crust.

She sobbed and the earth wept depressive green rivers with her.

* * *

Grass grew on the patch that had been under the protection of Su Li Din's barrier. That circle of land, and many of the trees within had remained in tact, save for the sheared tops. But even they didn't escape damage. The land tilted strangely as the earth _beneath_ the old woman's barrier had been burned away just as the treetops had. The result was a patch of trees growing lopsided on the slopes of the crater, surrounded by dry dirt. A hundred other such patches existed where other elders had managed to maintain their barriers, keeping safe all within.

Many more hadn't been strong enough...

Ku Lon stared in horror at the grim faced women around her. Most wept, afraid for their lives. Afraid for uncertainty. The Amazons... were no more. Three thousand years... to be the generation that saw them crumble. What a cruel life.

A dim haze settled over Ku Lon as she walked from one patch to another. A bit of the path remained here. A part of a tree hut there. The remains of one of the blacksmith shops. One or two of the elders had managed to even keep entire homes safe...

But _only_ one or two.

Far more often it was half a house. Half a tree. Worst of all, Half a person. Bodies, already long dead littered edges of the barriers. Those unlucky few who were caught with a foot or a leg or half a body outside the elder's barriers when the godlike unleashing of Ruby's power washed over them were the clearest evidence of the devastation wrought upon them all.

Faces Ku Lon knew lay there. Half of faces, the other half having been scorched into oblivion, while these dead husks had remained protected inside the barriers.

She shuddered. Ayavine had been a young girl when Ku Lon had left to fetch her great granddaughter what seemed only yesterday. She'd seemed so happy. Now her innocent eye stared up at her, half her mouth wide with horror. Hair grew out of half a face... Inside, she saw half a skull... half a brain, and blood dribbling out onto the winter grass.

Had she not been elder she would've retched. She almost did anyway, and many already had. No matter how calm her resolve, or how deep she dug into the heart of ice she couldn't hide the tears though. None could. The only upside she could see was that the snow was covering the bodies. At least they wouldn't have to look upon their fallen kin for long.

Unconsciously her feet carried her to the center of the largest patch. The sheered trees, now standing at half their height angling sharply towards the center of the crater, made the old woman cringe. Tears trailed down century old cheeks.

_"M-my home..." _She whined in the depths of her mind. _"What will I... do now? The Musk..."_

The Musk. The worst part about seeing her home in utter desolation, was the resounding, triumphant cheer echoing from miles away. It boomed like an avalanche. The victorious cheers of a fresh army of Musk who had not lost one fighter.

"Ku Lon..." The voice filtered in over her grim thoughts, and she turned.

"Grand-Elder!" Ku Lon rasped, shocked to see her teacher so... frail.

"Ah... Ku Lon, my young girl. Its good to..." The old woman's voice trailled off into a series of hard coughs that stung Ku Lon's very soul.

Three Amazon's huddled around the ancient one protectively, and Ku Lon was gladdened to see that one of them was Chell. Finally a hint of good news.

"Why so sad...? My dear?" The Eldest croaked.

Had the situation been any less serious Ku Lon might've groaned. As it was, she could only stare. "The Amazons are doomed... Our history is gone. Our families... our way of life is forever destroyed. Even you... the strongest of us all, lay dying. Give me a reason _not_ to be sad, Grand Elder..."

The elder smiled and reached out a dying hand. Ku Lon didn't have to touch the woman to know that her teacher of over a hundred years would finally meet the goddess this day.

"Why my dear... Don't you know? Everything happens for a reason."

Ku Lon couldn't stop a snort. "Old... fool."

The older woman gave a smile along with a tiny cough. "Mark my words... this day will one day yield ripe and fresh fruit. So, the Amazons are gone... pah! It was our time, anyway. Was it not you who fought so adamantly for the rights of men?"

"Not at a cost like this! This is too much... too much..." Ku Lon breathed.

Su Li Din burst into another fit of coughs and the young amazons around her, none competent healers by any means, began to flutter in worry. Ku Lon didn't fidget. The old grand elder's end was upon her. Nothing the spriteling amazons could do would change that...

"No, Ku Lon. It... was just the right cost." The old woman croaked. And with that, she tilted century old eyes towards the sky, and the falling snow. "Ah... So this is how I meet my end? A fitting death... Ku Lon. Carry on... _will you?_"

A frigid and pruny hand proffered forth towards Ku Lon. Held within fingers that Ku Lon had never thought of as delicate, was Din's Fire Whistle.

"Gran... Grand elder... Grand..."

The older woman's voice became distant. If she were honest with herself, Ku Lon would've admitted that her mentor's voice had become cloudy, her eyes unfocused from the moment she'd spotted her.

"I... am tired. And I want to look... at the sky."

The woman's eyes closed. And she was still.

It seemed hours that Ku Lon of the Ama... that Ku Lon, knelt in the dirt, weeping over her fallen leader. The other amazons beside her seemed stunned.

"Grandmother..." Chell's voice was laced with dismay. "What... what do we do?"

A cool breeze brushed by Ku Lon's shoulders as she stood and faced her granddaughter. She admired the narrow gaunt face years of prison had imparted upon the girl. Life had not been kind for her. As she glanced around and saw her sisters, what few that remained, she realized that life had not been very kind to any of them.

There was not a dry eye among them. Tears fell. Mothers and Fathers crying for children that couldn't be saved. Sisters digging graves for the remains of those who had been unlucky. Medics, what few there were, tending to those who had only lost fingers, hands, or arms.

"The people will go to the lands of the Seven Lucky Gods... if the remaining elders agree. Know that my vote stands in favor of retreat. I ask you to bear witness to this, Chell."

"Bear-wait! Where are you going! You can't _leave!_" The green-haired woman hissed in near panic.

"I'm going to make sure this day doesn't end without a Musk death..." Ku Lon replied, coldly. Her eyes turned to the mountains above, where the camp's victory cry still echoed, a low harmony to the melody of crying amazons.

"B-but you'll... you'll..." _'Die.' _The world didn't leave the green-haired amazon's lips but Ku Lon heard her granddaughter's unspoken fear nonetheless.

Still, the girl pulled herself together quickly. "I'm coming with you. I'm sure everyone here would be willing to follow you. One last fight. A last stand against the Musk hoard!"

"No." Ku Lon said simply. "You have a different path."

Chell's voice was laced with confusion as she tried to interrupt but Ku Lon didn't allow it. "Girl. Granddaughter... the remaining elders will try to form some semblance of order, I'm sure. Give them my directives. The Amazons will regroup in the lands of the Seven Lucky Gods to the far south."

"I... I will do as you ask, elder." Chell voiced solemnly.

Ku Lon didn't know how she managed a smile. "And... and then, my granddaughter, would you try to find my son in law? Tell him I'm sorry... sorry the Amazons were no better than our enemies. Let him know it wasn't his fault."

Chell's face contorted in a mask of confusion but the girl nodded her agreement.

"Good." With that, the elder embraced her granddaughter. For what would probably be the last time.

* * *

The Musk celebrated. Deep into the night they celebrated. Pigs roasted on cookfires along with ankole and geese. The fields around Kinagoda and Tsukigezoku had been profitable and their assault of Tsukigezoku and subsequent raiding of their lands now provided plentiful food stocks for the army of nearly half a million.

Men laughed every where. Some played at dice. Some drank. Most drank in fact, and without exception, all of them enjoyed the spoils of their victory.

Captured amazons from the outlying perimeter of Joketsuzoku, those unfortunate enough not to have been blasted into oblivion by the King's trap, had been paraded about the camp in their new manacles with more coming by the minute. There was not likely to be any decrease in the steady rate of incoming captives. Their incredibly lopsided victory had encouraged hundreds of utterly doomed vengeance raids. But the tiny parties of enraged amazons rarely managed to kill more than a few musk before being dispatched. And almost all of them were the young women. Swords, unguided by the Minds of their tired and broken elders.

Unsurprisingly, officers and higher ranking Musk didn't hesitate to relieve the terrified captives of what little clothes their captors had left them.

Orgies reigned throughout and the cries of women were interrupted only by moans, gales of laughter, and the sound of underlings betting on how long it took captives to find pleasure in the debauchery.

With no fear of retaliation, Musk raiding parties had scoured the crater's outskirts for any fleeing amazons and within hours after the explosion, Joketsuzoku's surrounding area was stripped bare. Women. Cattle. Weapons. Armor. Leather. Ink. Food. Anything the massive army could use was taken. They had not, however, ventured directly into the city. Joketsuzoku, while mostly eradicated from the attack, was well known to be covered in potent magics. Magics that such an insurgence of ki would have no effect on.

So they remained. Men exuberant with the joy of knowing that their enemies for six hundred years and more were finally, finally destroyed, celebrated on. On into the dead of night, and the morning. For the past three days they had celebrated.

Light abounded for miles from the thousands of fires that lit the area. Despite the bitter cold of the winter, the sex, the laughter, the smell of cooking food, and the sheer number of people created a warmth that the men found pleasant.

Ituro was a Third Stripe in the tigers clan. And he felt _wonderful._ He stepped back slowly, spent and laden with sweat from the third schaat he had taken today alone.

The girl quivered as he left her, and he couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face. The amazon was a shuddering white haired girl of twenty three years at most. He gave a short smile and trailed his hand across her back.

She purred and turned back to him. Her eyes had the slightest hint of affection behind a wall of nearly fake defiance. The girl had come down from a _good_ one. Ituro could tell she had enjoyed the act nearly as much as he had, and if he wasn't mistaken, she might almost be sad to see him leave her.

"No worries kitten. My friend here will entertain you." He said with a gesture to Arugol of the Bear clan. The man wouldn't be nearly as gentle as he had, but he wasn't sure the girl really cared anymore.

"B-bastard..." She cooed. Musk submission techniques had done a number on her physique. It was surprising the girl could still voice her resistance. Her body certainly spoke a different tune. She tensed as Arugol stepped up behind her. Ituro knelt down in front of her and glanced into her eyes. He smiled as the air around him filled with her moans once more. "You like this, my dear?"

"Y-yes..." She blushed. Her face was already heated and his smile seemed to make her face redden even further. He leaned in to the girl and kissed her full on the lips.

Her suddenly wide eyes humored him, but apparently Arugol didn't appreciate the lack of moans. He shook the girl roughly and her coo's began to fill Ituro's lips.

The Third Stripe of the Tiger clan parted, and found the prisoner's eyes had closed. No longer defiant, she seemed to be focused entirely on her own pleasure.

"At's my girl." Ituro said, caressing her cheek.

The small smile that crossed her face as she met his eyes again sent a flush up _his_ cheeks. Maybe he was a bit closer to taking a schaat to wife than he thought.

He stood, thinking of getting some food from one of the cookfires nearby. It was only by chance that Ituro glanced a bit of mist out beyond the range of the firelight. Towards the crater and the ruins of Joketsuzoku, the mist was strange. It wafted a bit. A short wind caught it soon after and blew it away.

For a moment, Ituro thought he was seeing things. He blinked a few times to clear his vision, but the image remained. An elder. A single old woman was walking into the edge of visibility. Diminutive to near disgusting levels, the woman wore a green sweater with a small cat stitched into the fabric.

"Brothers! An elder comes!" He called with a laugh. "An elder comes to surrender!" For what other reason would a single elder walk straight into the enemy camp?

The woman walked with a slow, steady pace, trailed by a cascade long white hair. Her cane was twice her height but it didn't seem foolish or out of place beside her. Her stride spoke of anger and hatred.

As she grew closer a whooping chorus of catcalls and lunacy jeered down at the old woman. The chorus of the drunk. The victorious.

The perilously unguarded.

Ituro, far less drunk than most of his brethren, had trouble removing his eyes from the small, unobtrusive instrument in her left hand.

A flute...

The woman stopped ten paces away from Ituro. The man's eyes became more and more wary the closer she got. By the time she stood before him he felt completely sober. The rage in her eyes bubbled below a slim facade of calm that none of his drunken brothers could see through. Abruptly he realized that he was facing down one of the oldest and most powerful of their enemies.

The whistle made him shiver... he _knew_ that flute from legends. Red, crafted of aged wood, it seemed so out of place. A flute was no weapon. And yet...

'_Din's Fire Whistle.' _His blood ran cold with the thought.

Finally, the woman spoke.

"You rape my people..." She commented lowly, but it was enough. Eyes turned to her. Women's eyes were already on her. Tearstained with guilt, many of them. Some relief. Some fear. Ituro was vaguely aware of the white haired girl doing her best to not meet the elder's eyes and hold in her moans. Arugol, the damn bear, hadn't even noticed the elder as he continued his vigorous antics.

"You cheat us from what would've been glorious battle..." She continued. "It would have been a battle to mark the ages, would it not?" She asked solemnly. "Do you men not feel cheated...? Did you not wish to test your might against your enemy since times untold?"

Ituro's eyes hit the ground. He wished to rebuke her. To tell her down, and explain that the Musk had been so mighty, they hadn't even _needed_ to attack! But even the thought felt hollow.

"Do you feel so _proud _with this victory? Did you _earn_ these women that you defile!" Her voice rose so all present could hear. Women who's eyes had not broken into tears before, now openly wept.

Some men did too.

"Well, I will make you earn them... your _prizes._" She hissed derisively. Low and powerful, the air around the old woman began to swell and pulse. Men backed away and Ituro was among them.

"_By the goddess, for every woman you have taken, I will see that three of you spill your life blood this night!"_ The scream was a massive warning but somehow it wasn't nearly enough. The woman's hands blurred into motion, and a wheel of fire suddenly slung around each of the crone's outstretched arms.

Ituro had no time to react. Only half a moment to raise a horrified hand before the elder flung her ring of fire. He toppled to the ground. Funny... he'd expected that thing to hurt more. He did feel strange though. He'd fallen. That seemed important. His training instructors had always told him never to fall. His feet were usually so sure. Strange that a simple attack had sent him to the ground.

Blinking, he opened his eyes and looked down.

The pain didn't register until then.

That moment, he realized his stomach had been opened clean through, upper body and lower forever separated. His intestines leaked out over the cold dirt below, and all he could do was hold his jaw open in shock.

He thought he screamed then. As blood began to fill his mouth, he realized that all around him ten, a hundred, no a _thousand_ disks of burning flames were slicing his brothers to pieces. Guided by the woman who stood at the center of it all, rings of fire severed arms, legs, torsos, and heads from his fellow musk without even moving a single step.

The woman walked forward to his fallen form, till she stood right over him. She seemed unaware, even uncaring of fiery death raining down upon his brothers. His met her eyes, knowing he was already dead.

Knowing that his final thoughts would be of the shame of an easy victory.

"Y-You... are r... right. Elder. There was no _glory! _W-we cheated. We w-were cheated. G-give us a fight our sons w-will sing of!" He told her through bloodied lips.

The amazon looked down on him for a moment. Amidst the death and carnage all around her.

"You won't _have_ any sons."

Ituro barked a laugh. "C-can't kill us all, Elder. S-suicide... to attack."

The elder smiled. "No... I can't." The conversation seemed so strange amidst the death cries of his comrades. "But my son. My daughter, the _Ruby... she will." _

Ituro was wrong in the end. His final thoughts had not been on shame. No. For the moment the word 'Ruby' left the elder's lips, he felt fear. Fear for his people, and the cold certainty that the Musk were doomed.

* * *

Somewhere in the halls of the ancient monks, a book worn with age blew open. Pages, untouched for years flipped by, touched by a wind that had no business in closed halls.

The rapid flipping of pages slowed and finally, came to a halt somewhere in the middle of the large tomb.

No eyes were present at the moment to read the words, and none living in this age could have read the lost dialect if they had _been_ present.

But a thousand miles to the north, those words danced in the eyes of a certain man. A man who could read the wind.

_...The Empress of the Sky Comes..._

**End Chapter**

**Author's Notes: **And Her War lives.

This chapter has been the most difficult chapter to write yet. When I planned this fic out, I didn't anticipate how difficult writing the fallout from such a massive angstbringer bomb would be.

This chapter was depressing, and not even all that long by comparison. But I promise you, its all uphill from here.

The rise of the Ruby Empress begins. Let her reign last, forevermore.

**Till Next!  
MB**


	17. She Falls in Color

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, _many_ characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

* * *

The stage for war is set. The Amazons have been nearly obliterated. The Musk celebrate their victory by not even dignifying those who remain with a battle choosing instead to leave and continue on to conquer the unsuspecting modern world.

Ku Lon, now the greatest of the remaining Amazons, has begun a war party whose only goal is to attack the Musk until every last one has been slain. Guerrilla warfare and revenge in their hearts, this small group has begun to harass the countless hordes of Musk warriors. Each one knows their mission is doomed to failure.

Yet in the midst of destruction, chaos, and war, a goddess has been born.

May her vengeance be swift.

Her war... begins.

**Her War**

While Ruby built her army in the west, I ran. I feared for my son. I feared Ruby herself. Who could know that I would come to be feared...?

— _Sovi, Aktaya_

**Chapter Sixteen  
She Falls in Color  
**

_We freed the previous writer's daughter. And the child, no the children, warmed everything. Our hearts were merry. Our minds at ease, and even She managed to smile again, for finally we had won a victory. United in our cause, men and women alike joined forces. Under the limitless power of our goddess we were invincible. And we became one people. Not divided... segregated by our sexism and ancient traditions of hatred. _

_We were one._

_She called us to war and we followed. To bring down the other half of the dual societies of enmity. To bring down my father. _

_She blew the Elan Cornet... and the skies did burn in her wake..._

* * *

Illi Sovi was a rather strange child. About seven years of age, she was already well aware of arcane and mystic happenings that couldn't be explained by men or women. Her own talent... perhaps ability, was one such thing.

Perhaps the existence of such a trait was due to her foster mother's own uniquely immense power, or maybe some factor in her early childhood had augmented her mind to give her the strange talent. Either way the young girl had always known how to tell exactly what was troubling any other person.

Looking to her left she spotted Atiyo, another child 'rescued' from the Musk. He hadn't believed it was _rescue_ at the time but he'd come around since the war ended and the Musk King had perished. Atiyo, like all the children in the large room, had a Trouble. Just... one Trouble. What the boy had hidden from his newfound friends in Beijing was his Jusenkyo curse. As was tradition for Musk sons, he and his father had made the perilous journey into Amazon territory some years before and the young boy had dunked himself in the spring of drowned panther. Now that he was no longer a Musk, he felt... ashamed. Afraid that his new, curseless friends, might shun him if he revealed his curse.

All of this information had passed before Illi's eyes in a blink, sailing in front of her on sheets of wind that slid around the boy, painting his problems into the very air. A trifling Trouble for the ex-Musk in comparison to many that Illi saw every day. Even worse was the fact that Illi could tell without doubt that Atiyo's fears were unfounded. Children were uncaring of strange or unusual. They ran across something new everyday and adapted with ease. What matter that your friend grew up in a society that degraded women? Who cares if he had never heard of a game boy or nintendo? Wait? He transforms into an animal? Awesome!

Children could see, and believe without fear of the unknown, and adapt faster than any adult. This, in Illi's mind, was the honest truth. Atiyo had far more to worry about from his friend's _parents_ than he did from them.

People like Atiyo didn't bother her much. No. It was the older ones that made her uneasy. Her foster mother, Ranma for one. The woman, or man depending on the weather, didn't know the meaning of _relax. _So many Troubles followed her around, dancing in the wind that sometimes Illi wanted to cry. One person should not face so many burdens.

But face them Ranma did. And even with all that burden... all those many swirling Troubles, the Empress always had a smile for little Illi.

That smile was why she loved her.

Idly, Illi kicked a rock. The building was cracked and the pieces of concrete that littered the interior were more numerous than the children, but it was the best place they'd found to host so many kids and get a decent education system started up again. The place had been a gymnasium before the war had torn it. Now it was more of an auditorium. Metal chairs were lined in somewhat orderly rows, but had to skip a few in places where holes or rocks too big to move had ended up in the way.

She followed the path of the kicked rock with her eyes and found the teacher Mr. Toru. A vast number of Troubles coated the air around him, though not quite so many as her mother. Grief for a wife, killed in the attack, and desperate wonderings over how his sister had fared... or if she was even still alive. Worry over how he could take care of his own two twin sons, on top of the worries he held about the children placed in his care here at the school. Frantic plans to get a meal for them at lunch time, to more simple worries like how he could teach them all without any books.

Her eyes watered. They often did when Ranma sent her to class with the other children her age. The teachers were always so... tired. She tried to stop herself; revealing her knowledge of other people's Troubles almost always irritated or annoyed them but she just couldn't help it. "You're a good man, sir. Thank you... for caring about us so much, but you should worry more about you're two sons. We... we'll be alright. We have the Empress after all."

The man's eyes widened for a moment before he smiled lightly at her. "Thank _you_ Illi. I'll overlook the invasion of my privacy as well, but please refrain from spying on me in the future, if you don't mind."

Illi flushed. "I wasn't spying! I just... you..."

Adults just didn't understand. She'd stopped trying to explain long ago but sometimes she just wish they could bring themselves to _believe._ Just once... "You just... look so worried sir."

He walked to her and picked her up, and she allowed it without a struggle. "I am worried, little one. We all are. It'll get better though. You'll see."

At his words Illi blinked. In the air, standing apart from everyone else came one of those rare visions that she occasionally had that didn't revolve around any one person but instead seemed aloof and independent. Like the figments of an idea, or the dream of a future that would come to pass. This one showed her a gleaming city bathed in sunlight. Dimly recognizable as this place of rubble and destruction, the image of Beijing gleamed like polished diamond and the Tower of Leira glowed with holy light.

She'd only seen a few others images like it. Images of Chell, the woman she'd known to call Mother, when she'd finally been rescued. She'd seen those before she'd even met the woman, and known that one day the green haired amazon would come to save her.

And... she'd also watched Joketsuzoku fall to ruin... It had been the only time she'd feared the Ruby, the Musk had spoken so softly of.

"Aren't you supposed to be somewhere today, little one?" Mr. Toru suddenly asked.

Illi winced.

"I... might've jumped out of the helicopter mama asked me to wait in. But... But I had to say goodbye! I might be gone for a long long time with my new sister on the way, and Mama didn't give me enough time with my friends and...!"

Abruptly Illi realized she was rambling. Sometimes she wondered how pitiful her own Troubles must look. She always felt guilty complaining when she knew so many others had Troubles that would keep her bawling for months. But... but she couldn't help it! She hadn't even left yet and she already missed her friends!

'_I'm only seven! I can't handle that stuff yet! I don't want to either!' _She thought with vigor.

"Relax. You'd better hurry and say your goodbyes. My class will begin soon." The older man abruptly turned and began to walk towards the stage in the front of the room. "Farewell Illi. I hope to see you again, when this place looks a bit better."

"Unn!" Illi agreed enthusiastically. Then she turned and dashed off to find her friends.

She found them near the back of the room. Ansa, Daichio, and Okan. To her guilty joy, she found their expressions grim and their Troubles were filled with images of her. They _missed_ her. And most importantly, they cared. It was good to have friends.

"Hiya!" She exclaimed brightly, shocking them, and then watching the images of her fade away from her friends, Troubles evaporating into mist and then nothingness.

"Illi!" Theye exclaimed as one, and dashed over to greet her.

"We thought you were going to be half way to Hong Kong by now!" Daicho, tallest of their group by a good foot and sporting the most unique shade of blonde hair a Chinese had ever had, ignited the conversation. Her words were quickly followed by Okan's "Yea! You said you wouldn't be here. Did ya sneak off?"

"Mmm hmm!" She replied brightly. "I'm supposed to be on a helicopter waiting for Mom's... friend to come back from Japan. But... I got bored! So here I am."

Ansa shuddered. The girl wasn't... timid. But perhaps bookish would be the best way to describe her. Bookish at the age of seven. Illi was disgusted by it. Hell she could only barely read now after her mother had started to teach her, and it was the most boring thing on the planet in Illi's humble opinion.

"I... still don't get how you call her... Mom. She's so sc-scary." Ansa said as another shudder wracked her body. Ansa, like many children who'd been in Beijing when the final battle had been waged in the skies above, had seen Ranma fight... Illi was glad she hadn't.

"Hey... she's not scary. She's..." What answer could suffice? The most kindhearted person Illi had ever known? The savior of China? The only one who'd been there for her when her mother... when Chell had died. How could she possibly describe all that?

"She... is kinda scary, I guess. But she's my mom."

It simply couldn't be done.

"Hey you never did tell us how the Empress adopted you. You said you would!" Okan demanded hotly, his cultured black hair fraying just a tick with his excitement.

"Well..." Illi hesitated. She did have to get back soon but... "Alright. I guess I can tell you how she saved me from where I was born. It all started..."

"**...about a year and three-!"**

Without warning the sky itself darkened to a dead night. A red unholy hue seemed to sweep across the land itself. The schoolhouse shuddered. The whole _city _quivered and men gnashed their teeth in fear...

Small red lights began to seep from everywhere, all of them rising above to the skies and mixing into a blood red ball of molten death that made the sun look paltry. Above all was the terrifying hollow voice that boomed like that of a dead god...

"_Return my daughter or perish..."_

"AhhhHHH!" Illi screamed. "I gotta get back! I'm sorry! I'll see you guys soon!"

Her shocked friends could only nod in slack jawed horror as they along with the rest of the city, stared vacantly at the red spirit bomb hovering just above them.

And Illi ran off to get back to her father before he blew up the world.

* * *

A blank expression loomed on Ruby's face. She stared absently at the dirt of the crater she'd created, feeling the pressure of the geysers of ki steadily discharging themselves. She had been almost unaware of anything beyond her knees... or at least she tried to. She had been curled into a ball for hours upon hours, doing her best no to see the wrath she had wrought upon the land, and was unable to close her eyes. A thousand eyes, all seeing, and more horribly, all _feeling. _

Her limitless ki explored everything. Invisible upon touching the air, it still expanded there anyway, catching notice of birds chirping. Birds that had not been roasted by her power. Ants tittered in a frenzy below her; they numbered beyond count.

Joketsuzoku lay in ruins. Trees aged for millenia and still growing now breathed their last breaths. Weaker ones had been eradicated completely, burned into dust and then even the dust burned away. Women, men, children. So few remained. She could feel their numbers... feel how small they had become. And she could feel the sorrow of those who survived as if it were her own. Weeping amazon elders and the guilty souls of those lucky enough to have survived were all that remained of the once great nation.

Amazons. They would never _be _again. Halt the amazon dream, and cry for the goddess who would not reach down her hand and protect her chosen.

Worst of all, paining her more than even the dead city was Aktaya. Her ki entangled with the girl's legs, now miles away from her. But she felt every step.

Aktaya had run away.

"Ruby...?" Herb intoned for what must've been the hundredth time. "Ranma. Are you alright?"

In truth, Herb didn't really know how to comfort her. He scoffed mentally as he thought of what he might say. _'It's alright Ranma? How could it be? She killed the Amazons with her own hand. Her own child... what comfort can I give?' _

Barely more than a whisper Ruby uttered. "Aktaya's left me... hasn't she?"

Herb winced. "Aktaya... she left some hours ago, towards the east with Tir. She probably just wanted a walk to ease her mind. Tir... he was crying. She thought he was disturbing yo-"

"No." Ruby intoned, her voice a hopeless pit of despair. "She's... afraid of me."

"She will return." Herb said, a small measure of confidence in his voice. The girl Aktaya. If she'd been strong enough to stand next to Ruby's fire, even for a short time, she would be made of steel as well. And she'd helped significantly when he'd been holding up the barrier.

"She shouldn't." Ruby replied, looking up for the first time in hours. Her eyes were red, though dry as if she'd run out of tears. They glowed dimly in the night. The only part of _her_ that still did. All around them the dirt lit with a menagerie of color and wonder. Green rivers rushed through the smallest cracks in the dirt, creating veins that seemed brimming with life. Reds coalesced into geysers and illuminated the landscape in beauty. Violets, and blues, all dark colors making the inside of the crater brim with color. The night was alive, and it all swirled around Ranma; a peacock's tail crafted of neon light magnified a thousand fold.

So much emotion. Such beauty spawned from uncontrolled grief. Despite the wonder, none of the party viewed Ranma's unconscious display with awe. Amazing as it was, an oppressive feeling seemed to seep into them, even as the veins of ki replenished their power.

"She shouldn't come back at all. She should stay away... what if I kill her on accident? Wh-what if I killed Tir? I... already killed one."

"It wasn't your fault!" Herb hissed.

"It wasn't my fault!" Ranma mimed, patronizingly. "Yeah. I'm sure the survivors will sympathize." A brief glance towards the ruins of Joketsuzoku, source of that unbearable sorrow, and Ruby buried her face back in her knees. "I'm a god damned monster..."

"You're not a-!"

"Go away Herb. Jus... Just leave me alone." Ruby sobbed, though no tears fell. She'd run out of those.

"Ruby..." Herb interchanged, unable to decide which name to use for the redhead. Neither seemed to matter.

Ruby got to her feet, and began towards the west, pointedly away from where she dimly felt Aktaya still running. The menagerie of color followed her.

Herb felt a cold shiver as the abundant and warm, yet oppressive ki left them once more in darkness. Gone, but it was still visible in the distance, geysers erupting from the dirt as Ruby walked further away.

"Ruby? Giving up... I never thought I'd see the day." Mint commented dryly.

"She doesn't have much left to fight for. The Amazon's betrayed her trust and the King... well..." Lime replied his own voice somber and filled with regret. His eyes trailed to the east where Aktaya had run earlier in the evening. "Coward..." He spat.

Herb too turned his eyes to the east and regarded the girl that Ranma had apparently fallen in love with during their time with the Amazons. The girl who had abandoned her in the time of her greatest need. And Herb couldn't blame her...

_"If I had a child... would I want him near Ranma?" _Guiltily, she knew she wouldn't.

"Lets go boys." Herb commented. He let a sigh slip from his lips and turned towards the north. Back to the dead city.

"But... where, Lord Herb?" Mint asked.

Herb smiled. "To help our sisters."

He may not be Ranma. Or Ruby. But for once he was certain he knew _exactly_ what was _right._ And following her example? There were far worse ways to live.

"Farewell, Ruby. I hope to see you again."

* * *

Tsingtao was irritated. Not overly so but still irritated nonetheless. It seemed war was an aggravating business. His losses were not minimal from the old woman's assault, and to add Icing to the cake the woman had _escaped. _She launched that damn tornado technique that his weaker soldiers were so gods cursedly susceptible to. THe cyclone had ripped through his inebriated troops like a scythe through wheat.

His counter attack force had disobeyed. They had joined in the festivities when they should've been on guard and it had led to their deaths. By Ku Lon's hand or his own didn't really matter. Elder Ku Lon, or _new_ Su Li Din as Tsingtao was beginning to think of her, had proven herself quite the adversary, though not in the same way as her predecessor.

'_Hmph. Amazons. Pesky roaches. Kill the biggest one and a new one gorges itself until it can fill its predecessor's place.' _The king thought with disdain. But it was no matter. Not minimal losses was still a giant's count compared to how many he would've lost trying to take Joketsuzoku without the aid of Ruby. Still, Ku Lon had shown herself to be a superb guerilla fighter. She'd noticed the laxity in Tsingtao's guards and exploited it three times now. Yet every time he entered the area to engage her himself she fled, her small strike force, numbering never more than a hundred, vanishing with the wind.

Smart. But certainly not brave. Not like a real opponent. Nothing like...

'_Where are you Ruby? The next move is yours.' _The king thought with a grin. The rook had become a queen. Agile. Quick, and powerful, without the restrictions of a king. She was cunning, and adept in the ways of ki. Her power stood up to his own and she surely had a thirst for revenge.

Tsingtao licked his lips, trying to force down the greedy delight he took in dreaming of that battle. Near equal footing? How long had it been since such odds had been arrayed against him? Twenty years? Yes. Twenty years since he'd drowned Herb's mother.

Now... now that such a fight was near, Tsingtao felt excited. Would he meet his end at the hands of a truly superior opponent...? Or would Ranma Saotome become the mother of his fifth son? He didn't know, and that feeling, that uncertainty, made him heady.

Unfortunately the thought of his sons sobered him. Anger, and sorrow. Marjoram... only fourty years old. Smart, yet blinded by his passions. A son that Tsingtao had loved... now dead. He never would've died if not for this war.

Herb... a better son Tsingtao could never have hoped for. Stolen! Snatched away by a stupid accident, Jusenkyo's whim, and the cursed fool traditions of a foreign nation. The betrayal of his son burned him more than even Marjorams death. Herb... Herb had been his favorite. But the future was not set in stone. Perhaps the boy would return, and asked for forgiveness? It could happen.

Worst of all, he feared he may have truly lost yet another son. Borage had not returned for three weeks now, and it was not like him to miss the festivities at the end of a battle. A battle of this magnitude? Hundreds of captive amazons? He should have returned but... no sign.

Another son... dead for his cursed ambition. The old king felt tired... drained. Grief overwhelmed him in times of privacy and tears came close to trailing down his cheeks. Slowly, he let his head sink into powerful hands and shook.

'_This war is taking everything from me. Is this even worth it? My son Borage.. please come home. I can't lose all my sons.' _He prayed.

And he wept.

Several hours passed before he regained the composure needed to be the leader he was. It would not do for his men to see him in times of weakness, rare though they may be. He consoled himself well though, for as much as the war had taken, it would give back a thousand fold. Already it had begun to yield great results.

Mace. Oh his son Mace! How proud could a father be? His druidish ways, wild wood magic, had truly grown powerful enough to _best_ Su Li Din in combat. Greatest of the Amazons, yet felled by the son Tsingtao had always thought weak.

No longer.

Of course Ruby had been the true killer but Tsingtao had no doubts as to the weakness caused by Mace's battle with the aging elder. Mace had not lied. Truly he had fought. Truly he was loyal to his father. Mace was the son who defended his men with vigor and passion. Mace... eldest at eighty years.

Tsingtao never would've known just how strong his boy had grown, had it not been for this war.

The Amazon's demise. Perhaps the most obvious benefit to the war thus far was that the once great warrior nation... the female half of their ancient accord that had betrayed his father and his people so long ago, had finally been crushed. If they even tried to recover it would take them _centuries._

Not that they didn't still have a few pesky elders. But that was the thing wasn't it? They were _elders. _Not capable of childbirth. All he had to do was wait for them to die off...

Another added bonus was Ruby's ascension. Who knew that a human, with no significant lineage to speak of could have such will? He had no doubts that one day she would either give him a son that Tsingtao could finally call equal, or she herself would return to her original form and _become_ that equal he'd dreamed of having for so long. Shedding the power of the locking ladle was not so difficult. Not for one such as her.

Ranma Saotome might yet become the one he could share his vision with. The ally that he'd never had in all his long years.

Yes. Ruby was nearly the greatest thing this whole war had produced.

But the greatest... oh... the _best_ thing. Tsingtao was finally proving his own father wrong. Finally doing what the fool hadn't been _man_ enough to do himself.

Reclaiming China.

'_Six hundred years of biding my time. The game is finally ready.' _It was time to unleash his greatest weapons. The weapons that would bring technology down from its fabled throne, and return the land to the glory of ages past.

"Uri." He uttered, just loudly enough to be heard outside the tent.

"My liege." Said the drake-kin. Tsingtao's personal bodyguard and second in command, appearing in the tent as if by magic. Ever vigilant, and by far the most powerful soldier in Tsingtao's entire command, Uri had been promoted to Second, long ago. Slow to words, and even slower to happiness, the man just _might_ be good enough to take over, should the impossible occur and Tsingtao perish.

"Uri, it is time. Call your brothers. The drakes will rise to fight in their dragonlord's name."

For the first time in nearly a century Uri's stoic face cracked the tiniest hint of a smile. "Aye... my liege."

The man disappeared. Tsingtao waited for a few moments. Then, a deafening draconic screech wracked his ears. His men wailed a gnashed their teeth outside at the unexpected decibel, and their moans of agony made the king chuckle.

He stepped out of the tent and continued to wait, his eyes trained on the Northwestern Mountains, unblinking. It would be a long wait. Drakes were cranky after hibernation, especially for nearly half a millennium. But soon enough... their scaled wings would blot out the sun.

"These lands belong to me." The king whispered.

'_Father. Look at me now...'_

* * *

From the edge of the crater they had walked. Miles. Multiple miles the colossal blast had dug into the earth, and Kirin's party trailed the radius from their place in the east. Night lay heavily and the stars had never seemed so dim to Kirin.

The Amazons had perished. Not completely... not entirely. But this day had set them on the path to their final collapse. Their numbers drastically cut down to size, and the reason for that destruction, that devastation, was not difficult to find.

"My lord I beg of you, this is the goddess of the Amazons herself! Please do not enter Holy ground!" The dwarf Ebiten begged, as the eight members of their party of them slowly neared the area on the far edge of the crater where the lights danced and blotted out the stars.

"Perhaps... perhaps Ebiten is right, my Prince." Lychee, Kirin's wife warned lightly. "This... is not normal. Please, don't do this."

Kirin sighed. "Lychee, if this is the goddess then I must know why she would destroy her own people? Worse, why would she linger here and torment them? You saw her talking with the Musk King as well as I. Would the Amazon goddess descend and betray her people? I think not." The man's blue flourished cape rippled as he turned away from the old dwarf and continued forward, heedless of the warning. His ever present bowl of rice didn't waver.

"If... you're sure. But if she attacks, we must flee. Promise me." She insisted.

Kirin readied a protest but the orange haired woman's hand, laid lightly upon her slightly swollen stomach made him reconsider.

"Alright." He replied. _'This ki... this vast ki... but still it feels human. And so... familiar.'_ The prince thought. Familiar. It was hard to believe considering the theme park of dark hued colors lighting the dirt and running tiny veins through the edge of the crater.

A redhaired girl stood at the center of it all, staring up into the sky. She glowed white, and the colors around her seemed to brighten whenever they sprung towards her, and darken as they flowed away. Clothed in Amazon garb, her hair pooled around her waist and glowed even more vibrant than all the lights; she looked as if she could truly be the goddess.

Tears trailed down her cheeks emphasizing the main color of the lights. Yellow. The palest yellow of oppressive, gut wrenching guilt. In her arms, the girl held a midnight black cat, with fangs that protruded down beneath its jaw. A sabertoothed panther barely larger than the a forearm.

"Why does she seem so familiar?" He questioned aloud.

Tossing the thought aside, Kirin advanced the first step into the threshold of the dancing lights. Noting that he was not roasted to cinders, as Ebiten had expected, he continued forward. As he walked, he even began to feel rejuvenated.

"Kirin?" The girl spoke first, her eyes darting to him across the threshold of her domain as soon as the light and ki touched him.

Instant recognition settled upon the Prince of the Seven Lucky Gods. Ranma. Ranma Saotome. The man he'd fought for Akane Tendo's hand nearly two years gone now, in her female form. Her hair, red as blood, had grown to a ridiculous length. No longer pigtailed, it spooled out down her shoulders in a cascade nearly below her waist. Radiant in the light of her own ki, everything glowed.

"_Ranma Saotome..._ What in _God's_ name has become of you?" Kirin approached entering the ring of lights fully. As he grew closer he noticed the metal rings circling her arms and rings. _Four. _By gods she had _four. And yet so much power?_

"The Musk... turned me into a monster." The redhead replied, her eyes still focused intensely on the moon above. The stars, usually vast and endless, were dimmed by the lights the girl seemed incapable of stopping.

"Some would say Goddess." Kirin replied with a mocking nod to Ebiten. The little imp of a man stuck his tongue out and Kirin couldn't help a slightly smug expression.

"The label doesn't make me any less of a killer." The girl commented, facing them for the first time. Seriousness overtook Kirin as he met those eyes. They too, glowed. A blue that should not exist. The cat stood at her words and moved up to nuzzle the girl's face with affection.

Kirin spared a glance for the crater they had entered what seemed an hour ago and asked a simple question. "Did you intend to destroy the Amazons?"

"No." Ranma answered without hesitation. "But I wasn't going to help them either... I didn't want them... massacred."

"Then you should feel no guilt." Simple as that, or so the prince believed.

Ranma nearly gaped. "They still died because of me! How can you-?"

"And so you're plan of revenge is to sit here and mope?" He retorted hotly. A single rice kernel fell from the edge of his bowl unnoticed by both, but it was a measure of his unease to Lychee and the other members of the Lucky Gods to see their prince falter. "I have a measure of who you are. Not a murdered. This power, no matter how you got it, may have killed people but it might be the only weapon capable of destroying the Musk, and their wretched king!"

"I'm _not a weapon!" _

The ground literally shook as the lights faded to a deep shade of red. Soft dancing lights became hard lasers. Now instead of melding with the landscape, they sliced through it. Ki blazes shattered boulders, and loose rocks seemingly without any directive from their owner.

Ranma's eyes widened in horror as she saw what her temporary spike in anger had caused. Instantly the lights returned to their normal bright colors, as the redhead squinted desperately, straining to reign in her emotions.

Kirin rubbed his arms, wiping away goosebumps, and noticed his companions doing the same.

"You..." The girl shuddered, her eyes closed as the cat continued nuzzling her face. "You see...? You see what I've become?"

Kirin hesitated only a moment. "I see."

Ranma sighed and wiped her tears to clear her eyes before opening them again. She took an extra breath as if straining herself, to make certain her temper remained in check. "Why are you here Kirin? What is your part in all of this...?"

Kirin noted the quick change of subject but didn't comment. Instead he decided the swift change of topic might be a good idea. It wouldn't do to annoy a girl who's emotions could literally become daggers.

"My people have long been allied with the Amazons."

Ranma blinked at that. A few of the lights changed color to represent the surprise.

"Why? Aren't you a man? I would think the Musk would hold more appeal."

Kirin grimaced at that. "My nation is small compared to either the Amazons or the Musk. Rather than be swept away by either my family long ago decided an alliance was in order. We joined the lesser of two evils. Amazons didn't make a practice of breaking men into subservience. Even so, I've never actually been this far into their territory."

Ruby shook her head. "Might want to recheck your info. The Amazon's have thousands of imprisoned Musk... _Had." _She amended with a disgusted hiss at herself.

"Better than tens of thousands. The Musk must have had that many and more prisoners to breed an army of such size."

Abrupt realization plunged through Ranma's mind. There had been many many barracks in the Musk homeland. Why had she assumed there had only been one prison?

"God damnit." She breathed. A few paces away a boulder exploded, causing the rest of the party to flinch. Kirin was forced to catch a few pieces of rubble to keep them from touching Lychee but the group remained unharmed.

"I... I'm sorry." Ruby murmured.

Kirin disregarded the offense. "The Musk army is leaving. They are aiming for the modern cities in the east."

Ranma's eyes narrowed at that. More war. Of course. Such an Army would've destroyed Joketsuzoku even without her help. Why had she assumed Tsingtao's ambition only ended with crushing the amazons? Of course it would be more.

Worse... the east. Aktaya had run to the east and even if the girl was afraid of her, Ranma couldn't allow harm to come to the brown haired fighter.

The cat in her hands meowed softly, its fangs gleaming in the ki-light.

Modern China would be destroyed by the Musk. Maybe if they had warning they could prepare a good defense. How well did ki hold up to bullets? Ranma wasn't sure but she knew Tsingtao probably wouldn't want the Chinese to fire upon his men if they didn't have some sort of protection. Ki barriers. Probably armor too.

She imagined the cities of China in flames. Then, Japan. Tokyo. The Tendos forced through the same pain she'd endured. Shampoo. Another Amazon... she wouldn't fare well under Musk hands. Uuchan? What would happen if the King succeeded in taking China? Would it be enough?

It wasn't a risk Ranma could take.

"Will you stop Tsingtao? You might be the only one strong enough..." Kirin asked lightly.

Ranma turned back to her moon-gazing and sighed. Idly she placed Bast upon the ground. "I... can't. Not yet. Not... like this. Every thought causes my ki to go haywire. Every time a get angry I blow things up. I couldn't face anyone like this... Not without accidentally killing as many allies as enemies."

The redhead turned and began walking to the East.

"Where are you going?" Kirin asked, trying desperately not to show relief at the girl's departure, and failing.

Ranma locked eyes with the Prince of the Seven Lucky Gods one more time over her shoulder. "To find some control."

* * *

Herb wiped sweat off his brow, grimacing at the unusually heated day. Very early Spring was upon the land but on this particular day the weather seemed to have confused the time of year with Summer.

"Back to work, Male!" Said a young woman, no more than eight seasons older than him from a distance. The words were what a Musk might expect to hear in an Amazon village but the tone displayed the changes that had been wrought by Herb's presence.

"Back in the house, Schaat!" Herb retorted to the red haired girl walking up the pathway towards him with a sunny grin.

Matoko was once of the opinion that all Musk were the scum of the earth and should be treated as such. The destruction of Joketsuzoku had changed all that. It brought _Herb._

"What are you doing, O' Prince?" Matoko mocked him playfully, but let her expression drop, wanting him to realize it was actually a serious question.

Herb gestured with a free hand towards one of the trees nearby, noting one of the treehouses that had been built about twenty feet up. It had crumbled beneath Ruby's power almost a month ago now. The house, now more of a shack, had faired far better than the ones above it that had been burned out of existence, but it had still fallen. Pieces of wood hung by ropes, nails, and broken hinges as if reaching down to the pile of debris that lay around the tree's base. "Elder Cheguo gave me permission to build my own home."

Matoko grinned. "Sick of camping?"

"Horribly." He replied.

With a sigh Matoko flung herself against another nearby tree. "You and everyone else. The elders are going barmy over the kids still sleeping outside."

"As well they should!" Herb barked heatedly. "They're getting sick! The healer's huts were all on the outskirts and most of them were destroyed along with all the medicine."

Matoko's grin faded a bit at that. "Hmm... I know. But no one's died since... well..."

The Calamity didn't really need to be named for Herb to understand.

For a little while they both just stood breathing in the knowledge of Joketsuzoku's loss. Keeping a sunny outlook was difficult in these times, especially for the Amazons but Matoko had always been one of the best. Even she couldn't help but succumb to the despair of knowing how many friends and sister's she had lost every now and then.

Sooner or later, Herb sighed and began his work with the fallen logs, separating them into piles based on whether they could still be used or needed to be disposed of.

Another ten minutes passed as Matoko silently watched the ex Musk, before she worked up the nerve to speak again, and when she did, her words shocked the white haired man. "Herb... er... _Elder Herb..._ I wanted to ask you something."

Matoko was not known for her subservience. Her attitude was brash and rude, and usually about as upbeat as possible. Elders were constantly smacking her across the skull in an effort to reign in her attitude and lack of respect.

The mere idea of her calling _Herb_ an _Elder_, was unthinkable. Yet here she stood, twiddling her thumbs and meekly stuttering through whatever it was she was about to ask.

"...Elder?" He asked interrupting her.

Herb's presence had upset most if not all of the remaining Amazon elders. A rough thirteen thousand Amazons, including men and children, had survived the Calamity and half of those had gone with Ku Lon on her mad revenge quest. The other half had remained here to care for whatever future they could still make out of their glorious past.

When Herb, the Musk Prince, walked into the destroyed remains of Joketsuzoku and promptly began using his rudimentary knowledge of healing to attend to the wounded regardless of gender or status, the whole society had been wracked.

None could match him in power, and they knew it. Even the elders didn't dare try. Yet here he stood, helping them much like a regular male of Joketsuzoku might've done. But none could deny his power. The knowledge that he could wipe them out and yet _chose_ not to had slowly but surely begun to change the amazons.

Men who had been born and raised in the Amazon villages suddenly found their wives, who had once been closer to _masters_, showing them respect, and asking their opinions. Children, boys, who had never been shown an ounce of equality in the village, suddenly found themselves learning the arts of combat right alongside their sisters.

But strangest of all, Herb himself had made _friends. _Matoko had been the first to warm up to the ex-prince. Herb had told his story to the circle of elders... how Tsingtao had exiled and disowned him, after the Amazon elder Ku Lon had tortured him in the chambers below the city. He told of his desire to _change_. To _show_ the remaining amazons of Ruby's ideals. And the amazons, many who had harbored similar beliefs in secret for years, lauded him.

The elders scoffed of course, officially. _Men were weak!_

… But they had destroyed the Amazons.

_Men couldn't become as powerful as women!_

… Herb stood right in front of them didn't he?

But the main saving grace... the one thing keeping the elders from attacking him and claiming him as a captive of course, was Chell. Chell the warhero. Chell who had survived the Musk prison and Chell who spoke on Herb's behalf.

Despite all of this however, Matoko herself had never personally displayed respect for _anyone_. Her trainers stood in awe of her skill with the blade, A Master's level by far, and yet had to grit their teeth at the girl's obnoxious bragging. Apparently that had calmed since the battle of Kinagoda, but Herb still thought she was arrogant.

Even so, he liked her. As did Lime and Mint. They would spend hours training or teaching children or rebuilding or any other number of activities that made the elders cringe. Some were more... private than others. The audacity! A musk and an amazon?

The thought brought a grin to Herb's lips.

"Y-yes. Elder Herb." Matoko persisted with the foolishness. Herb had a sneaking suspicion that she might be joking around with him but she seemed serious. Deadly serious. And _highly embarrassed_ of all things.

"You're two years older than me you know." He joked in an attempt to lighten her mood.

"That's not making this easier!" She hissed, losing the humility she'd worked so hard at.

Herb grinned. "Well then ask like a normal person instead of a Schaat, eh?"

She hissed at that. "Fine then! I tried to be respectful, but when they whine and complain at me about how I asked you, I'm letting them know you ordered me to be normal! Herb. I'm challenging Mint for marriage. Personally I don't think you should have any say in the matter of who I challenge but there. I asked!" Despite her anger, her face was flushed a heated red.

Herb cocked his head. "Okay. What does that have to do with me-?" And then as if realizing the trick behind a complex technique, the whole conversation suddenly made sense. She wanted to challenge Mint, in the hopes that he'd beat her and then she could marry him. But the elders didn't want that to cause any trouble between Herb and them... so they were making her ask _permission!_

A smirk crossed his face. "Aaahhh..."

"Sh-shut up..." She flushed, becoming even more embarrassed. As it became apparent just how clearly under his thumb the girl was willingly placing herself. If he said _no_ to her request, that would cause a whole series of problems, not the least of which being an increase in male ideal across the remains of the village. Men would hear of this... hear that a woman had been denied the right to challenge for marriage. Joketsuzoku would change, and it would change in _waves._

But no.

Herb didn't want revolution. He wanted... wanted...

An ideal that seemed impossible.

He put his finger to his chin and made to look like he was thinking about the request, even though it was more of a demand and let her stew for a while.

After a few moments the girl could no longer stand it. "_Well! _What do you say!"

He finally broke. Sitting down on the grass he let out a long laugh.

"Its not funny!" She hissed but he barely heard her.

He caught his breath after a moment and glanced up to her, with a grin. "Challenge away Matoko. Just one condition. He can turn down the challenge if he wants to. And no Amazon tricks. You tell him what the challenge entails upfront."

Her eyes narrowed at that, embarrassment gone. "That's not fair! I... if he said no I would be shamed!"

Herb's mirth drained at this. "When a man in your village wishes to marry a woman and offers a challenge, she is allowed to decline, is she not!"

Matoko fumbled. "W-well... is not honorable to decline challenge but... yes. If she is afraid she couldn't win and doesn't want to marry."

"How is it any different for him?" Herb asked, adding a bit of heat to his tone. "If you pose him a challenge, an ultimatum and he doesn't wish to marry you..." Which Herb honestly thought was ridiculous. Anyone could see the relationship between Matoko and Mint was nearly unbreakable already. Even so he continued. "Why should he not be allowed the same right to turn down the challenge as you are given? Because of his gender? My opinions on the roles of different genders has already been well stated."

Matoko twitched. Anger warring with her common sense. Slowly, painfully slowly, her mind began to take in the words Herb was giving her.

It was a brand new world. Equality was the antiseptic, or maybe the thread to stitch a wound. It burned as it was applied but the results were unfathomably greater than letting things stagnate. She and the rest of the Amazons had to take the good and the bad, and no one said it would be easy.

Slowly, she nodded. "Alright. I'll challenge him tomorrow morning, and if he decides he doesn't wish to wed me, then we won't fight."

Herb grinned. "And when he accepts, and mops the floor with you I will cheer for him."

The redhead's eyes lit with momentary fury and Herb could swear he saw a comical burst of smoke expel from her ears. "What makes you so sure _he _will win!"

"You want him to. Isn't it obvious?"

Again the girl's cheeks flushed. Idly Herb noted how her mood seemed to switch from angry to embarrassed in an instant and marvelled at the seamless transition.

"Just because I want to marry him does not mean I would simply give him victory! He has to earn it!" The redhead boasted, her eyes blazing with something akin to fury mixed with humor and a little bit of self righteousness.

"Ah yes. Bloodying your lips is a wonderful way for him to show how much he cares for you. Yet you demand it of him. Imagine how sad you would be should he refuse to hurt you. Sometimes you Amazons are so strange..."

Again the girl changed to an abrupt anger. But she didn't say anything. The expression seemed to fade from her face as she thought about his words once more.

"He wouldn't do that... He knows if he wants me he has to be strong enough!" She replied.

"A man must be strong, in a society that discourages that strength. Don't you see the problem? You're traditions are backwards."

"And you're always trying to change us! Our society has worked fine for three thousand years! Just because you're right on some things doesn't mean you can change everything about us!" The redhead hissed.

"You're society has only worked for six hundred years, and it has been declining ever since. Did you know that once the Amazons and the Musk were one people? United? Equal? I would have those days return..."

"Why! Why do you so desperately want to change us? I-I just want Mint to love me... as a man should. Quiet and strong..." She trailed off, her eyes burning with rage.

Herb sighed and laid his head in his hand, desperately trying to come up with an answer. After what seemed an eternity he finally met the girl's angry eyes again. "Because quiet and strong might not be all he wants from life... and both men and women should have the same opportunity for happiness."

Letting a bit of mirth creep into his voice he gave a small grin. "And besides... can you really imagine Mint being quiet? Strong, always... but he's not exactly a silent person."

Matoko couldn't stop the laugh that escaped her lips despite her anger. During the brief respite in the seriousness of the conversation she took the chance to close the gap between them and began to help Herb lift the some of the fallen wood and branches.

For a while they merely shared companionship and hauled branches out of the junk piles separating them into the usable and the disposable. It was some time before Matoko spoke again. "Herb... you are not what we expected from a Musk you know? You... care. Not just about those under you but about people you've never met. We... always thought Musk were raised to be heartless."

Herb smiled. "I grew up with the understanding that Amazons were spineless, and extremely ugly. I assure you I've been proven wrong a thousand fold. There is much we could learn from each other."

She seemed to consider that for a moment before nodding. "I agree. Though try to make the elders see that..." She trailed off emphasizing the impossibility.

"I have been trying since the day I first came here." Herb replied somberly. Adding a bit of enthusiasm he joked. "They're stubborn as nails! That was a stereotype in Musk society that has proven true. Amazon elders could make a rock scream in frustration!"

With a laugh Matoko replied. "I've been wondering about that too. Why are you here? Not to seem rude. I know your father disowned you... but why come back here and start bullying all the elders?"

"I'm not bullying!" Herb barked defensively.

Matoko cocked an eyebrow.

"...Not much." The ex prince admitted.

"Why are you doing it at all though Herb?" I... I heard the rumors about you being held in our prison chambers. Why come back here?" Wide eyes questioned him with utter seriousness.

Herb sighed, letting out a wave of frustration and emotion that he couldn't explain. "I'm here because... I feel like it's what _She_ would do."

"_She...?"_ Matoko questioned.

Herb nodded. "Yes. She. You call her Ruby."

Matoko let out a short gasp but held her composure. Even so, a blind man could have spotted the anger that suddenly overtook the redhead. Heated rage barely contained by the restraints of social civility. A few minutes passed before she could form enough thought to speak again and when she did her words were laced with poison. "Why would you want to imitate _her?" _

Ruby was one of the few things that could set the redhead into a fiery frothy rage. The girl knew the Amazons had been attacked by some sort of super weapon and had been devastated when she found out Ruby had not been in the village at the time, choosing instead to run away beforehand.

Some irrational part of her mind, Herb supposed, must have believed that Ruby could've saved them if only she hadn't turned her back on them. Despite the fact that it was the Amazons who had betrayed Ruby, their society mocking Ruby's pristine beliefs in equality, Matoko felt equally betrayed by her departure. How much more hate would Ruby gather if the Amazons actually knew that she had been the source of the colossal ki blast that had decimated their ranks?

Herb couldn't leave her reputation in shambles, even if she never did return. It wouldn't be right.

"Because she saved my life, and abandoned the amazons when she found out they had their own torture chambers. It disgusted her. As soon as she discovered that I'd been tortured she broke me out of prison and fled, planning to leave the Amazons and the Musk to their own devices." He paused, trying to search for the words. "I... don't really understand it fully myself. I thought she fought for the women purely for revenge at first. But it seemed that she believed their ideals. That she wished to defend her sisters. Perhaps she even came to believe in your "Amazon Dream." When she found the Amazon's secrets... how they... how _you_ tortured men into compliance if not slavery, she was heartbroken. Don't you see? In her eyes, it is the Amazons who betrayed her! Had she the power, she probably would've tried to destroy you just as she had tried to destroy us. In her mind... in her mind Amazons and Musk are two sides of an awful, awful coin. To her, leaving our war behind was the _only_ fair choice. I think _that_ is why I try to imitate her. I don't want dominance. I don't want anyone dominant over me, and I believe all should have the same right."

Matoko had listened with rapt attention, her eyes focused intently on Herb.

With such serious conversation the results of the next moment should have been no surprise.

A sudden gust of wind above caused a broken treebranch to fall, crashing to the ground nearby. It landed upon a lever which for some random reason had a pail of wash water on the other side. The bucket whirled across the grassland straight towards the pair of individuals. Herb snatched it from the air but was drenched in the process. A moment later a highly irritated pink and white haired girl stood where the man had before.

Matoko couldn't help but laugh. It was only the serious subject matter that kept her from sinking to her knees. It was ridiculous just how inventive the Jusenkyo curse could be at times.

"I was... trying to be serious."

All Matoko could do was laugh as the conversation was broken. Herb, now shorter than the redhead beside her, laughed right along, wondering if her tiny crusade to change the remaining Amazons for the better would really amount to anything.

* * *

A young woman walked along a broad paved sidewalk, idly kicking a rock here and there as she went. Across her back in plain view for all to see rested a massive sword that seemed almost impossible for a girl of such size to wield. At her hip was a vicious and well bloodied dagger. Meticulously cleaned, the weapon could slice steel as easily as skin. At her back was a huge bag, that looked like it had seen heavy use. Strangely, it didn't seem to carry any brandname or logos to show who had made the archaic pack. It seemed almost as if it were homemade. In fact even her clothes seemed as if they had all been hand-stitched which was almost unheard of in these days.

Her hair was dark brown. That alone was noticeable in a place like China where everyone had black hair, but on this girl, blue or green hair would've been seen as just another of her list of strange attributes.

Dressed in a skirt and blouse that somehow managed to fit with the leather harness and greaves that protected her from mundane attacks, and sporting an eye-patch that one might see in an old pirate movie, the girl was clearly not the usual sort of person to walk into town.

Completing her image though, and perhaps making it the most surreal of all to the wide-mouthed people of this village, was the modern-day baby carrier she held in her left hand. Inside it was the cutest little bundle of joy anyone could ever admit to seeing. A young boy, no older than a few months, stared wide-eyed at the strangers and laughed with reckless abandon.

Pedestrians, who had at first been struck by the cold gaze of the woman walking into their town, found themselves put at ease by the laughter of her tiny companion.

She'd walked in on the side of the road, slinging that pack on her back as if it weighed nothing. Coming from the west, it appeared she had been walking for a _very_ long way.

Drivers in cars rolled down the windows occasionally as they drove by, but disregarded her quickly. Costumes were common enough.

Pedestrians walking along the streets of this small town were a bit less quick to turn their eyes from such a strange anomaly. The girl... was bruised. Cuts and gnashes peppered her body, some looking days old, others freshly opened. Her stride was straight and she didn't seem to even notice them however.

She approached the town center with no trouble and no one was brave enough to ask her if she needed help. She cut an intimidating figure even if she was injured, though no one was able to put a finger on why.

"_Its good to be back."_ The girl thought, noting dresses displayed in glass windows and decorated with blaring Chinese kanji that she could only barely read. She thought in the year she had been in this country, she had learned how to speak the language at least adequately but reading it was another story.

Once she'd reached the main area of town, the girl stopped and gave a small smile as she stepped into a pharmacy. Her smile widened at the soft _wsshhh_ of the automatic doors as if they sparked some sort of happy memory within her.

Tiyada Etcho was coming up on his middle years, and had found that the world had grown a bit boring over time. Day after day passed running his store, learning at the local college and saving his money. Married with no children as his wife was infertile, he had grown a bit bitter over the years. In all, Tiyada was quite disillusioned about the surprises of life. Jaded to the fads of youngsters, and already set in his ways at only thirty, he was pretty certain that he could handle anything life threw at him...

Right up until Aktaya Sovi walked into his store.

"May I help you ma-!" He cut off mid sentence as her sword reached his eyes. _'Holy shit is that thing real? Wait, am I about to be robbed?' _Was the first thought that went through the man's mind as he laid eyes upon the brunette.

"Hello sir." The girl's hard expression became a smile, and at that moment Tiyada's eyes wandered over the baby carrier in her hand.

He relaxed quickly. Parents brought their own sort of trouble sure, annoyed mothers yelling that his medicine was not working or that he had given the wrong prescription was always a hassle, but for a moment he'd thought the girl was about to pull a heist! He _really_ couldn't afford to be robbed at the moment.

"Apologies Miss. May I help you?" He tried again with much more success this time.

"Yeah. I'm afraid I'm going to need to take over your store."

Tiyada blinked. "What?" He asked, confused.

"Your store is going to be needed. How many bandages do you have? Oh, and Peroxide. I'm going to need all of that. If you could get it here on the front desk that would be great." She said offhandedly as she began to examine the racks of merchandise.

He cocked his head. "Young lady, this pharmacy has _gallons_ of peroxide. Why would you need-!"

The girl's hand lanced out across the counter and snatched his collar with a speed that baffled the pharmacist. "For the love of god, just do it. All of your peroxide. All of your bandages. All of your first aid kits, and anything else you think will be helpful for fixing wounds. I don't know if I'll be able to hold off the attack that's coming but I guarantee every bandage you have will save a life before the day is over. You have one hour."

The cold, dead tone the young girl used, and the fact that his feet were off the ground all convinced the Tiyada that he should probably go along with whatever the girl was saying. Inwardly he sighed. _'Fuck... it is a heist. Why me? Why _this_ week!' _

Still the steadfast man, and brave to the ways of streetpunks no matter how strangely dressed, Tiyada was not afraid. Compliant, and in no hurry to die, but not afraid. "Fine, prick." He hissed. "Well! Gonna put me down? Lets get this over with."

Worse the girl was a foreigner! Japanese unless Tiyada missed his guess.

The girl let go of his collar and he felt his feet touch the ground with a sense of satisfaction. Dusting off his shirt and fixing it a little, he turned his glare on the little bitch. Broad daylight, with a baby in her hand and she's pulling this shit? Bah. Tiyada felt sorry for the boy.

Well, he had a way of dealing with people like this woman. Thieves trying to rob his store were not at all uncommon here. Many had tried and succeeded before Tiyada wised up and got some protection.

"For what its worth, I'm sorry about this." She apologized and he sniffed. Sorry. Right.

The man was then forced to blink in almost utter shock as the girl _turned her freaking back to him. _She walked away towards the shelf with all the simple painkillers, advil, aspirin and the like and began collecting them by the armload.

'_God she sucks at robbing people. Damn strong grip though.' _He thought idly as he pulled the .44 out from its hiding place beneath his front counter.

"Hands up." He hissed.

The girl stopped. With an exasperated eye roll she turned to face him and stared the weapon down with probably the most ballsy reaction Tiyada had ever seen. No fear. Not even agitation. No. Instead the girl was _irritated. _

"Good. You're armed. One more gun means one more chance at surviving."

Then she turned right back to the painkillers and started gathering more.

The boy in the carrier at her side giggled.

Well. That wasn't the reaction he'd expected. Not at all. "Woman, get the hell out of my store before I report you to the police."

"You haven't called them yet? Dammit you're slow." She hissed turning towards him with an armload of bottles. Fearlessly she approached the desk again and Tiyada backed away, holding the weapon steady on the girl.

The old pharmacist was finally starting to get a bit unnerved. Something was _wrong_ with this girl. She ignored the gun as if it were a fly. Even _less_ than a fly. She demanded all his bandages and first aid kits, but had not yet asked for any money. Something was... wrong here.

A shiver ran through his skin as he watched the girl suddenly finger her eyepatch. Her finger sunk in much further than a fake should be able too. Oh yes. Something was definitely wrong here.

"St-stay back! Crazy..."

"I'm here to help you. Again... I'm sorry."

With that the girl held up her hand and faced it towards the windows and the entrance that lead out into the main street.

And then she utterly obliterated Tiyada's beliefs in magic.

"_Arc." _

A blue blast of energy exploded from the girl's palm and burst the glass windows into pieces that scattered outside the building and into the road beyond. The explosion shook the ground and Tiyada was thrown off his feet, tumbling to the ground behind his counter.

"Wh-what in gods name?" He hissed idly... "Was that...?"

"That. Is what's going to save your life today. I hope..." The girl told him with a sad shake of her head. "Your city is next. The army is coming, and you'll need every firearm this town has if you want to stand of chance of not being obliterated. Its on your doorstep and you haven't even _noticed." _

The was shivvering in fear, his eyes deadlocked on the wall of his shop that had just exploded. "B-bombs? Did you use...?"

"NO! For the goddess I can't believe I'm still trying!" The girl yelled, locking her eyes on his and forcing a connection between them. "Your town is about to be attacked by people who make what I just did look paltry! Now get on the phone and call the authorities!"

"Y-yes... I... think I will." What was she asking? She was _asking _to be arrested? Her words simply weren't registering. All Tiyada could see was that this girl had blown up his wall.

Shakey fingers latched onto the cellular in his pocket and flipped it out, but even as he tried to dial sirens began blaring in the background.

"Ah. At least someone has sense." The girl said with a small smile to herself. Again, she turned away from the Tiyada, returning to kneel down by the meds once more.

Only a few moments seemed to pass between that first siren and the arrival of the People's Armed Police. They spread out and surrounded the area. Weapons, real guns trained upon the building's interior, and Tiyada could only stare in mute fascination at the girl who's smile kept on brightening with each new pistol she saw aimed at his poor store.

Finally, a small hint of sense crept into his ears. _'An army was here? To attack? Is that why she...?' _

The girl had finished piling drugs onto his counter and once again locked eyes with him, pulling him out of his reverie. His weapon hung limply in his hand, now long forgotten.

"When the fighting starts, try to save those who fall but aren't killed. You look like you have a bit of steel. I hope you can bring yourself to call on it when it matters." The girl said with another smile that seemed... sad somehow.

"I... Don't...?" Tiyada couldn't respond. What did you say to that?

"You will." She interrupted. "They're here. Its time."

The girl turned and walked towards the hole in the window she had made, prompting a series of calls from the police outside.

Slowly, slowly, she walked out. As she did so, she pulled the ridiculously oversized sword off her back and bore it at the guns trained on her.

Citizens from other buildings had peeked out to see the commotion. Bystanders numbered in the hundreds. A small town but still a town. A barrier had been erected to blockade incoming traffic and cars parked alongside buildings with drivers stepping out to see what was happening. All were curious. But most importantly, all were wary. That wariness might just save them.

"Get down!" A man shouted, and the sound of cocked weapons echoed in her ears.

The girl ignored him and the sounds, still slowly stepping forward with the blade drawn. Men had already begun to step back, afraid of the girl who seemingly held no fear, and looked like some sort of warrior from a story.

Finally she spoke. A pleading demand.

"Please... Look up." Were the words she gave the crowd. And she turned her eyes skyward. Even as she did so, a sudden strange shade came over the clearing.

Perhaps without even realizing it, the men surrounding her followed her gaze, and their eyes widened in sudden horror, as a huge javelin fell from the sky.

The spear sunk through a policeman's stomach and imbedded itself into the concrete road, staking the man like a roasted pig. Blood dribbled down his back where the javelin protruded in a horrific display, not allowing the already dead man to fall. None noticed.

All eyes focused on the hundreds of winged figures above. Shocked.

"_Decend!" _Shouted a hateful male voice. Like a whip crack, the phoenix warrior who had gathered above leaped from one of the taller buildings, falling in a lethal cascade of white wings.

And as Aktaya Sovi had planned... had _hoped..._ someone fired a shot. Like a trigger, bullets filled the air.

The brown haired girl lifted her own hand, palm outstretched and uttered the word that prompted her own attack.

"_Arc."_

_And man and phoenix made war. _

* * *

Far above the slopes of the surrounding mountains of Jusenkyo a pair of eyes observed the land. the crater and the few patches of land that made up the remains of Joketsuzoku to the south. A touch of softness was held within the gaze as they glanced across that dead village, and the remaining few that still lived within.

Then they swept away, taking in miles with each millimeter they moved. Their gaze landed upon the lush acres and acres of farmland to the north, spawned by the Musk's magics and their ability to grow. Not one drop of softness remained in the steely gaze as it trailed across the place that had spawned a being such as Tsingtao.

They watched, taking in all the land from their position high above.

The person who owned those eyes was called Ranma. And she had learned to fly.

"I'm ready, Tsingtao. You made me a monster. You took my son... time to reap what you've sown. Let us make war, you and I."

And the red-haired figure, surrounding it her own vortex of clouds and colors, began to descend.

_Lo, the goddess falls to earth in color, to return The People to glory once known. _

**End Chapter**

**Author's Notes:**Alright this obviously took forever. Also I'm in the military now so don't expect quick chapters I'm afraid but I did finally manage to get around to finishing this little chappie. Lots and lots of character development and I must admit it feels rushed to my usual style of writing. I know this, but know that the depths of war are going to be entered in the next chapter. This one describes how it started. Next will show how it actually _is. _

At least that's my goal. I've never truly been in a war so I'm doing my best to blend realism and EPIC and probably fobbing things up.

Once agian, I'm sorry for the long wait but on the upside, I'm almost done with my training. I'm tired and only have like an hour of free time a day to write on this but it'll all be worth it. Folks. Materia-Blade is packing his bags and getting on a plane. He's going to fucking Tokyo.

Ehem...

Aww YEAH!

Love you all and please **leave a review** if you don't mind. I realize it's been eons since the last chapter and I hope you don't all have to go back _too_ far to catch up on things. Hopefully the summary at the top recapped you a little bit.

**Till Next!  
MB**


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